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Bulb lasagne

Penny_ForthemPenny_Forthem Posts: 455
in Plants
This was done a while ago, but for new readers... 
The best bulbs for layering for spring succession of flowers?
And the best compost?
We are going with a mix of peat free and local soil improver.
Some will have narcissus and some narcissus and tulips. 
However, I'd love to throw Muscari into the mix. 
Beautiful North Wales - hiraeth

Posts

  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    edited September 2022
    I can’t get the succession, they all come up together. Muscarii, daffs and tulips a bit of a mess.

    As per the other thread on muscarii, they are in leaf now until they flower so anything flowering before say March will be competing with them. The last of their colour fades for me in May. I tried snowdrops but they were lost in the greenery.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    I'm not sure it is a good idea either. @JoeX has said can finish up a mess of leaves and I would agree.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    I tried succession layering last year but it was really unsatisfactory.  I ended up with a lot of leaves and it's very messy.

    However I will be layering some tulips this year. Not for succession, but same-variety layering,as a way of packing more into 1 pot.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Same here, expected months of lovely flowers. Nope,old leaves that have to stay put ruin the look. What I have done the last couple of years,is plant the bulbs,top with pansies,violas or wallflowers,that worked much better 
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    The best success I have had is with just Iris reticulata on the top layer, with tulips below.  There is a sufficient time gap for the irises to fade before the tulips emerge and their slender fading foliage does not spoil the look.  Adding anything else just spoils the lasagne - too many cooks!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Agree.  It's messy.  The fading foliage of the first flowerers detracts hugely from the ones that follow. 

    I now plant singly by species and colour and then shuffle pots about as needed to bring the good looking ones to the fore and put the ones that have fiished flowering in a quiet spot where they can grow on and feed the bulbs for next year.   Much easier to control feeding and watering that way and the bulbs then go out into the borders to naturalise where I have gaps.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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