Bulbalicious!

Surrounded by catalogues, bulbs in every beautiful colour leaping out of the pages, I could get so carried away.

Bulbs really are such good value and for the very minimal effort of popping them in the ground in the autumn, they will look after themselves and reward you with a glorious display all next spring ... Perfect!

A few things to consider when bulb buying:

The larger the bulb the more flowers you will get. Big, fat and firm is what we are looking for here.

Garden centres will have there stocks in now and they will be sitting around for months drying out, the earlier you buy them the better.

Check the base, where the roots emerge from to ensure it looks healthy and undamaged.

Don’t scrimp on quantity, these are the cheapest plants available and they look better limiting the number of varieties and planted en masse.

How will I choose?

There is a bulb suitable for every area: pots; lawns; shade; dry and damp areas – talk about versatile!

Here are just a few of many to choose from:

Tulips – for a vibrant display in April to May - try mixing a bright orange like ‘Annie Schilder’ with an almost black tulip like ‘Havran’; or for a classy white with white display with tones of silver and green try ‘Purissima’ (single) and ‘Exotic Emperor’ (double).

Narcissi – March to April – the good old daffodil, super-tolerant of any site and situation, clump forming to create a bigger better display every year there has to be room for a few Narcissi – try a highly scented mix of early flowering ‘Avalanche’, ivory in colour and multi headed ‘Silver Chimes’ & pretty and fragrant ‘Geranium for a long display.

Alliums – May to June - these flower a long time and are great for a late spring/early summer – try ‘Hollandicum aflatunense’ beautiful smoky-mauve which quickly bulk up to form spectacular drifts.

Also try ‘Cristophii’ for their huge seed heads.

Wood Anemones; Crocuses & Lilly of the Valley – Feb-Apr – early flowering carpets these are best in drifts through your grass or shaded corners. Crocus tommasinianus is great for bees and freely self sows. Convallaria Lilly of the Valley will thrive in dry or damp shade and will spread well.

Anemone coronarias - flowers April to June and differs from the wood anemone as they prefer a sunny spot – try Sylphide a great magenta pink.

Fritillaries – April to May – the exquisite snakeshead fritillary sits nicely at the front of the border or naturalised in grass, happier on heavy soils than on dry chalk or sand, will slowly naturalise if left to set seed until late June/July.

Muscari – March to April – try ‘armeniacum' another for the front of the border or for your pots and is a lovely deep blue.