Telegraph

This week's checklist: hyacinths, tulips and daffodils (Filed: 05/10/2002)

Jim Gardiner says it's time to plant spring bulbs, plant autumn colour and use green manure

Bulbs

• Plant drifts of bulbs to provide a splash of colour within a mixed herbaceous or shrub border. Here at Wisley, architectural allium species and cultivars are used throughout the shrub rose border and Lilium regale cultivars add colour and impact to the mixed borders.

• Hyacinths, tulips and daffodils can be planted en masse within formal bedding schemes to provide impact.

• Bulbs can also be naturalised, forming flowing drifts of colour across grass, woodland and informal borders. Crocus, colchicum, narcissus, scilla and fritillaria can produce a magnificent display more akin to nature than a regimented planting.

Autumn colour

• The colour provided by many trees and shrubs in autumn is often overlooked. This is the time to select specimens with colour and interest.

• Deciduous plants shed leaves to survive unfavourable conditions, such as the cold of winter. The shedding process is preceded by the rapid aging of the leaf, when leaf pigments break down and reveal yellows, oranges, reds, crimsons and purples.

• Colouring is unpredictable because it depends on many internal factors. However, some plants are renowned for providing good displays.

• Smaller trees and shrubs that provide good colour include Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku', Stewartia pseudocamellia, Hydrangea quercifolia and Euonymus alatus.

Green manure

• Green manures are used as part of the crop-rotation cycle at Wisley where the ground would otherwise be left fallow over winter. They help to prevent nutrients from being washed away, improve the soil structure and reduce autumn weed establishment.

• Borage (Borago officinalis), ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and comfrey (Symphytum officinale) are excellent green manures. Sow them direct on to fallow ground and once they have reached about 8in tall, cut them down and leave to wilt for a day or two before digging them in.

• Annual lupins (Lupinus) can also be used and contribute as much nitrogen as a standard fertiliser. When dug in, they break down rapidly, providing nitrogen to the new vegetable crop.

# With thanks to the team at Wisley (01483 224234; www.rhs.org.uk/wisley).

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2002