SPRING seems to have arrived all in a rush this year, with everything growing so quickly in the garden it's hard to keep track of it all. The daffodils seem to have gone over very quickly whilst spring bulbs like bluebells and wood anemones are rushing into flower.

When planting spring-flowering bulbs during the autumn, it's often difficult to imagine what they will look like when they flower because, once planted, there's nothing above ground to show where you have been. Making them look natural can be tricky, so I have been especially pleased with two groups of plantings we have made at Brockhole over the last few years. The first is a group of Lenten lilies, Helleborus orientalis, which I began several years ago. The three or four large seedlings I started off with have gradually increased in both size and number, seeding themselves throughout the bed and producing flowers in a range of colours from dark red to pale green. In between the hellebores we have planted Leucojum aestivum, the summer snowflake. Confusingly, these always flower in early spring; tall, elegant blooms like oversized snowdrops. There is a fine contrast between the white snowflakes and the darker colours of the hellebores that has been worth waiting all these years for!

Further along the same bed is a group of Erythronium revolutum, the American trout lily, which has also been gradually increasing each year. This spring they have come into flower at the same time as a nearby royal fern Osmunda regalis Hillii' has begun to unroll its crosiers. The fern foliage is tinged with deep pink, matching perfectly the lilac-pink of the trout lilies. The best-laid plans don't always work though. At the same time as I planted the E. revolutum, I also planted some bulbs of Erythronium californicum nearby. I intended their creamy yellow flowers to bloom alongside a clump of blue flowered Omphalodes cappadocica, but the Omphalodes has so overwhelmed the lilies that I think I will have to dig them up and move them to a safer place.

If you find you have planted bulbs in the wrong place, and that they would look better somewhere else in the garden, don't be afraid to dig them up and move them whilst they are in flower. Most bulbs will transplant quite happily provided they have enough soil around the roots and they are watered in well. Groups of bulbs such as daffodils that have become overcrowded and have stopped flowering can be dug up and split whilst in leaf. They may look a bit sad and floppy after transplanting, but they will come up next year looking all the better for the attention.

April 16, 2003 14:30