Bright Idea

Flower bulbs can turn a balcony or small garden into a little slice of paradise. The smaller the space, the more striking the details!

If your garden is small then concentrate on the smaller bulbous plants, such as the not-so-tall botanical tulips, small flowered daffodils, grape hyacinths, wood anemones, squills, dwarf irises and crocuses. Buy your flower bulbs and plant them into potting compost in containers. For proper drainage, begin by covering the hole at the bottom of the pot with a pot shard. This way the soil will not clog up the drainage hole. If the pot has no drainage hole, carefully create one so that excess rainwater can drain away.

During the winter keep your bulb-charged pots grouped together in a sheltered spot. You then just have to wait patiently for spring! Not that many people spend hours in the garden during early spring. For this reason, set the pots in places that are easily visible from inside the house or where you will  walk by them often. You can then enjoy every day of the return of spring.

What to plant

A list of all the different kinds of flower bulbs would be a very long list indeed! A couple of pretty small-flowered daffodils are Narcissus ‘Tête-à-Tête’ and the tantalisingly fragrant Narcissus triandrus.  ‘Hawera’. For a pretty crocus, choose one like ‘Pickwick’. Among the dwarf irises a good choice would be Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’,which looks great planted, as pictured, in bowls topped with coloured glass.