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bulbsplanting for spring!

edition three autumn ‘09

natural garden

Ready to dig?

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Welcome to the autumn issue of villi niitty magazine!

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What a lovely growing season we´ve had! Almost 90 days of spring flowering bulbs, and if you plant now you can have it to!

Autumn is filled with crisp sunny days, but with a hint of melancholy. A bittersweet season with a chance to start afresh.

We have added some great new stuff for your home and of course you are welcome with your bulb order for some

extraordinary rare tulips and daffodils for next spring. Please enjoy issue number three of villi niitty magazine and now get

out there planting! If it´s raining that means it is perfect planting weather and it

feels so nice to come inside for a cup of tea afterwards...

Else & Vesa Leivo

P.S. Put a note in your diary to visit WWP 30.-31.8 and Annala autumn market 10.9, see you there! D.S.

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CONTENTS5 favourites

New! Autumn ‘09

8 bulbs planting for spring!

11 natural garden spontaneous biennials

Published by

the staff of villi niitty

Copyright 2009All rights reserved

ON THE COVER:

Handfork by Burgon & Ball.

Historical tulip and daffodil

bulbs. All products from

www.villiniitty.fi

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favourites

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for simple garden living

new!

Easy bulb planting with this sturdy tool from DeWit.

Wire baskets for harvest time... available in three sizes. From 28 eur

9,90 eurTin O´Twine is now available in a new fab colour, lilac!

6,20 eurPretty Fête de la Lumière lantern lights up your garden.

28,-

29,-

favourites

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25,-

59,50Making notes, sketching &

writing letters...

122,-

autumn pleasures

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favourites

High quality note cards

3,20 eur / each

9,90

Practical and decorative

bootscraper in cast iron with

birds, keeps the mud at bay...

12,-

Vintage stylesoap holder Twig heart

4,90

`Elegans Alba´ 1895

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planting for spring!

bulbs

GROWING TULIPS

PLANTINGPlant your tulips, pointed side up, in october-november. We recommend that you plant your bulbs at a depth of 25 cm and 10 cm apart. Tests in our garden has shown that this is good because then you don´t disturb the bulbs during summer when you might plant other flowers in your border.

SOIL AND GROWING CONDITIONSTulips loves a sandy, humus-rich, well-drained soil and thrives in full sun, but also does well in wandering shade.

PERENNIAL TULIPS?The whole purpose of a tulip bulb is to flower. In fact, in the center of each bulb, tiny leaves cradle a baby bud. The white onion-like bulb that surrounds the bud stores all the nutrients that the bud needs to sprout and grow. Once planted, the only real help the tulip needs to grow is moist soil. To keep your tulips flowering year after year, you need to lift them when the foliage has died down completely. Lifting bulbs isn´t any more complex than digging them out of the ground or dumping them out of the pot. Usually each bloom produces one good-sized bulb and two smaller offshoots that can be thrown away. Save all the little bulbs from Duc van Tols they will produce a flower if they are more than 2-3 cm.

BOTANICAL TULIPSBotanical tulips or species tulips can be found in the wild, growing in mountain areas of central Asia. Cool, wet springs are followed by dry, hot summers there. Try to mimick these conditions when you plant your bulbs in your garden. Plant in a very sandy soil at a depth of 10 cm, botanical tulips don´t need to be lifted each year.

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`Blue Parrot´ Tulipa whittalli

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GROWING DAFFODILS

PLANTINGPlant as soon as possible in august-september so that the bulbs have time to grow new roots and establish themselves well. Cover the ground with a thick layer of straw or leaves if frosts arrive early. Plant the bulbs at a depth of 35 cm and 20 cm apart, except for mini daffodils like Rip van Winkle and Little Witch they only need 15 cm. If the bulbs are planted to shallow this might harm the flowering. The bulb will be prone to drying out during spring and is less likely to obtain sufficient nutrients. As a consequence, flowering is aborted. Prevent this from happening by planting at a depth of three times the height of the bulb.

SOIL AND GROWING CONDITIONSDaffodils are very easy to grow and require little maintenance. They tolerate more moist soils than tulips, and benefit from watering if the autumn is really dry. Plant in full sun or partly shade. They look really pretty swaying in the breeze under shrubs and trees. Most daffodils naturalize (spreads freely) and can be divided in late summer. It’s really important to let the foliage die down because that´s how the bulb gathers strength to produce a flower bud for next spring.

SPECIES NARCISSUS

Wild daffodils grow in the mountains, and blooms as the snow melts. They can even be found growing and blooming in standing water in early spring. But after the snow melts, the area is dry. So, to get repeat bloom and keep them thriving, plant them where they get lots of water early in the spring. Then try to keep them completely dry over the summer. A good place to try is just outside your house under the roof.

`Double Campernelle´ Narcissus moschatus

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Biennials are plants that takes two years to grow from seed to fruition and die. The first year a rosette of leaves emerges and proceeds to flower the following one. These provide an element of a natural look in your garden, where they spring up spontaneously.

If you don´t like where they grow it´s fairly easy to move them somewhere more suitable. Just dig them up, replant and make sure you water them in until they are established in their new growing position.

natural gardenAllow self-seeders like biennials to spread and make your garden more natural looking.Verbascum chaixii `Album´

Alcea rosea `Nigra´

Foxgloves, mulleins and hollyhocks all belong to the generous self-seeding biennials and are greatly appreciated for their vertical impact in a naturalistic garden. Looks great growing together with different types of grasses. Can be sown in late summer or early autumn.

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