Colourful composition coming up

Earlier this year I tilled a large bed on the side of my house, intending to fill it with shade-tolerant shrubs and perennials. But logic reigned and I decided not to install the plants until my house painting was completed.

Meanwhile, grass reclaimed the area. It took three days to rip up and shake out the turf then mix in leaves raked from the lawn.

My cousin’s stepson, Josh, helped me loosen the hard-packed soil in the bordering walkway, which was then shaped and re-edged. Now the area is ready and won’t have weeds growing back for at least the next six months!

A red rhododendron, hydrangeas, a pieris, spreading yew and boxwood will form the ‘bones’ of this garden but I’m also adding some buried treasures I received from the International Flower Bulb Centre. Each year this organization sends me a sample of spring-blooming bulbs to trial.

For 2007, the theme is for a colourful spring concert with all of the cultivars music oriented. There’s the lily-flowered tulip ‘Ballade’ - lilac with white edges; tulip Greigii ‘Oratorio’ with a rose-pink exterior and an interior of softer apricot-pink petals. The foliage is heavily mottled and unusual in this cultivar. It works well in a rock garden.

‘Abba’ is a vibrant red, double-flowering tulip with dark red flames on the petals. The ‘Boccherini’ single early tulip has a very distinctive shape with six petals that are usually pointed at the tip. The flowers are large and long lasting, which makes them very effective in beds, borders and containers.

One that I’m especially looking forward to seeing bloom is called ‘Gander’s Rhapsody’, after the Newfoundland airport. This late tulip is described as having an “entrancing� change of colour from bud to flower as it goes from pink to white.

As the appointed conductor for all of these performers I’m going to have to make sure each receives the attention they deserve.

I’m digging a hole at least a foot in diameter and six inches deep to contain the eight bulbs of each type. Several handfuls of bone meal will be sprinkled on the bottom of the hole, then the bulbs will be spaced an equal distance apart (pointy side up). To finish off I’ll be filling the hole in with soil and tamping this down lightly.

Bulbs can be planted right up until the ground freezes and sometimes if you wait, you can pick them up for a song. Last year I couldn’t resist buying several dozen daffodils when they went on sale at Canadian Tire for $2 a bag in late November. They were planted in December and bloomed very nicely last May.