Summer-flowering bulbs are fantastic for adding colour and interest to your garden. There are bulbs for every situation, whether sun or shade, big gardens or small, so you’re sure to find one to suit you. Here are our top 9 summer bulbs to buy and plant now.
Favourite summer-flowering bulbs for this summer
Gladioli: Gladioli produce tall spires of exotic-looking flowers in fabulous colours and can be planted outdoors in spring in any sunny spot with well-drained soil. They add a welcome vertical accent to planting and look great as cut flowers.
Ranunculus: Often referred to as Persian Buttercups, these ornamental Ranunculus can add vibrancy to your borders throughout the summer. They also make an excellent cu flower due to their long vase-life.
Begonias: Begonias are among the most popular summer bulbs (although strictly speaking, they grow from tubers, not bulbs!) They’ll grow happily in shady spots, brightening up pots and hanging baskets with their vivid flowers for months in summer and autumn. Start them indoors in early spring and plant out in summer.
Dahlias: Like begonias, dahlias are actually tubers, not bulbs. They come in an incredible range of flower sizes, styles and colours, and they flower from midsummer right up to the first frosts. Dahlias love the sun and fertile soil and make fantastic cut flowers. Start them indoors in early spring and plant out in summer.
Lilies: We are all familiar with the large trumpet flowers that lilies display through the summer and they are great for adding height and fragrance to a border, or for growing in containers.
Crocosmia: These are technically grown from corms, and come in variations of yellow, orange and red. Large pleated, blade-like leaves emerge followed by tubular flowers atop long stems that, with varieties such as ‘Lucifer’, an reach up to 1.6m in height and make a real statement in the garden.
Freesias: A florist favourite, with exotic blooms and a spicy-sweet fragrance. These corms can be planted in pots indoors from January to March or planted outside from April to June
Iris: Bearded Iris are perhaps the most popular to grow providing their unusual flowers in May and June with some varieties flowering later into summer and autumn. Make sure the rhizome is sitting with its top exposed to the sun for most of the day to ensure reliable flowering.
Lily of the Valley: Popular fragrant flower. Plants spread quickly in shady positions, making it an excellent choice for a woodland garden or shady borders, particularly underplanting shrubs.
Want to brighten up your borders this summer? Visit us today and choose from our fantastic range of summer-flowering bulbs.
So if you want to add some jewels to your garden this summer why not plant some summer bulbs now and you will appreciate their reappearance year after year!
