Spring-flowering Bulbs at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

THESE CONTAINERS vary widely in shape and size and the types of plant that suit them. Large Tubs are ideal for shrubs as well as summer-flowering bedding plants and spring-flowering bulbs. Urns are smaller and hold less compost. They are usually more decorative in character and so are perhaps best devoted to summer-flowering plants and displays of bulbs in spring.

Small bulbs such as grape hyacinths (Muscart) and scillas are often grown in rock gardens or used to make carpets of spring color beneath taller plants. Because spring-flowering bulbs die down in summer they can be used effectively with deciduous shrubs, which are bare of leaves when the bulbs are growing and flowering, or with herbaceous plants, most of which will hardly have started to grow so early in the year. Winter aconite (Eranthis), snowdrops, crocuses, scillas, chinodoxas, muscaris, and daffodils are all particularly recommended for this kind of two-tier planting, as they do not have to be lifted every year but can be left undisturbed for several years until they become overcrowded.

SUMMER-FLOWERING bedding plants need feeding regularly from early to late summi at about three-week intervals. Spring-flowering displays formed of bulbs and biennials like wallflowers and daisies do n need to be fed, but do use fresh and fertili compost. Only feed winter-flowering displays in late spring and mid-summer.