Spring Bulbs

This is the moment we’ve been looking forward to: all the firm oniony bulbs which we buried under the cold sticky ground in the autumn are now coming into flower, all the new carefully chosen varieties, selected for scent and variety of forms and ruffly frilly prettiness. They strew the brown beds of the early April garden with fragrant waxy white petals flecked with orange and peach. Some are big-headed and fat with multiple frilly skirts; others are tiny and dainty with neat questioning little faces peeping from stiffly arranged bonnets. And this is just the narcissi, as the tulips are only just beginning to appear.

Freshly picked narcissi ooze a wet sticky sap which can irritate the skin. If the fresh flowers are mixed with other sorts of flowers, it can limit their water uptake and make them wilt. So we don’t put tulips together with narcissi, unless the narcissi have first spent a few days in water alone, to clear their sinuses. There are so many kinds anyways that they need no other companions.