Bargain Bulbs

By: Growhouse

With Christmas looming, grabbing a bargain is possibly high on the agenda. With the help of your greenhouse you can bag a bargain and create some first class seasonal gifts too. What’s more you’ll end up with a fantastic and colourful display too.

When you’ve invested in a first class greenhouse you need to make the very most of your purchase. With Christmas just weeks away the canny gardener can take advantage of the change of tack seen at most garden centres this season. Where once before the garden centre aisles and areas were packed with things to sow and grow, many have been replaced with a plethora of items from distant shores, made to celebrate the festivities of winter: Christmas decorations, gifts, lights and festive trees and accessories.

The good news for the gardener is that this means the garden centre needs to make some space. Usually this results in some bargain basement knock down prices, in particular in the autumn bulb department, which although on sale in the autumn are actually spring flowering bulbs. It’s the perfect chance to fill your garden with spring delight and save money too and although most bulbs have been in stock for a fair few weeks, as long as they are cool and dry they should still be perfectly viable. While many such as the narcissi, really benefit from being planted as early as possible to build up a good root system, others such as tulips can actually be planted as late as December and even January.

Before you gasp in horror, remember that these bulbs already have the flower bud nestling inside the fleshy bulbs just waiting to be tempted out. As long as they have not started to shoot in earnest, are not damaged or mouldy, then they should still flower next spring. If the ground is too frozen to plant them then don’t despair, it’s the greenhouse to the rescue. All you need to do is to plant them in a good quality compost and put them somewhere cool to grow on. Of course the greenhouse is the perfect place and since this environment will normally force bulbs into flower earlier, your last minute purchases will soon catch up. They may not perform brilliantly the following year, but you should still get a great display this coming spring. The biggest bonus is that you’ve achieved it all on a budget and used your greenhouse space to the full.

It’s quite good fun experimenting with bulbs and when you can buy them at vastly reduced prices then you have more to play around with and with much less investment. Try planting half of them in pots in the greenhouse and the other half in pots outside and compare the difference in flowering time. You’ll extend the flowering season so you can enjoy them for longer and if you have a surplus why not pick some of the flowers and bring them indoors.

Make sure you buy and plant some scented bulbs, whether it’s Paperwhite narcissi or hyacinths, the heady fragrance will transform the greenhouse and your home with their floral perfume and they look wonderful too. Don’t forget that potted bulbs make wonderful gifts whether they are about to flower or are just starting to grow. Plant them in old recycled terracotta pots, tie with a ribbon or some raffia and mulch the surface with an ornamental mulch or fine gravel or sand. Far nicer than a pair of socks of a bottle of bubble bath and perfect as an end of term gift for a child’s teacher, a dinner party present or just a get well soon gesture for someone under the weather. The promise of spring and a gift with longevity that comes from the heart means so much more than a hastily bought bunch of garage forecourt flowers or something chucked into the shopping trolley on the supermarket run.