For Planting Now... SPRING BEDDING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 8

For Planting Now... SPRING BEDDING

Now that we've had a few frosts to finish off the summer bedding, and a few autumn showers to moisten the soil, we can make a start on planting spring bedding for next season's displays. Wallflowers are the backbone of many bedding schemes, with their rich colours. Buy sturdy plants which have been transplanted at least once before lifting for sale, and which have several stems, not just one —the sure sign of poor quality. Good varieties include Orange Bedder, Rose Bedder. Fire King, and Vulcan. They make an excellent feature associated with Darwin tulips of a contrasting shade. Space the wallflowers 9 inches to Ift apart, and plant them first. Then arrange the tulip bulbs amongst the wallflowers and plant them at an even depth with a trowel. If you want to be sure of getting blooms of the same height select bulbs of an even size for planting. Forget-me-nots are also commonly associated with tulips, and sometimes used as an edging to a bed planted with wallflowers or other plants. Since they are shorter they need closer planting, and 9 inches is ample. The blue of forget-me-nots seems to blend with almost all other colours.

Polyanthus of modern types are far superior to those available only 10 years ago. They do best in a rather shady spot. Sturdy nlants and large root systems are desirable, with as fnuch of the original soil as possible still attached to the roots. Small plants will give a disappointing display, and are a sign that they are very young. Polyanthus associate well with themselves, with their varying colours, but it a mixture is desirable, then double tulips interplanted and double daisy as edging will be found to give pleasant results.

In wanner spots Brompton stock with an edging of win-ter-flowing pansy will give very early bloom, and associated colours are available. Canterbury bells and Sweet William are not good examples of spring bedding plants, for both of them have a strong tendency to delay flowering until late November or early December. Consequently they tend to upset the orthodox scheme of spring bedding followed by summer bedding, since they don’t flower until they should be removed to make room for others. So if you plant them—and Canterbury bells are excellent for Christmas decoration —be aware of their snags.