As planned I tried out some additional bulbs that should work well in the sometimes pretty hot spring sun we have here in this Mediterranean garden. Last fall I added:
- Tulipa sylvestris
- Tulipa orphanidea flava
- Tulipa cretica Hilde
- Narcissus jonquilla Pipit
- Narcissus tazetta Bridal Crown
- Crocus sieberi Firefly
- Hyacinthoides hispanica
- Scilla peruviana
- Scilla hyacinthoides
- Gladiolus byzantinus
- Allium moly
- Muscari comosum
- Ornithogalum divergens
- Ornithogalum ponticum Sochi
New Tulips
Not new but for the first time very beautiful: normally the flowers of Tulipa fosteriana “Flaming Purissima” fade very fast on sunny March days. This year however we had a few cool, grey and rainy days just as they began to open and “oh wow”!
All the new tulips turned out very lovely: Tulipa sylvestris well with fragrant nodding golden flowers on long stems, blooming from March to April. Tulipa cretica Hilde, delicate-looking but flowering for a long time from March into April. Tulipa orphanidea flava came last with very pretty and dainty yellow-red flowers.
Narcissus 2025
I added Narcissus jonquilla Pipit and Narcissus tazetta Bridal Crown to the collection. Unfortunately Bridal Crown fell prey to this year’s invasion of Oxythyrea funesta. Pipit bloomed later and longer in pale yellow and white and was less interesting to the bugs. Both smell divine as do all our narcissi.
Allium 2025
Allium neapolitanum is spreading itself all over the garden. Allium unifolium has not shown itself yet and I will have to wait til June to see if the masses of Allium moly that I planted will show up.
Anemones 2025
Not new but sooo beautiful: Anemone coronaria once again bloomed fabulously from February into May. I added the variety “Sylphide” in a very pretty luminous pink color.
Scilla
Last spring I added a Scilla hyacinthoides that so far has only grown big leaves but no flower. As have most of the Scilla peruviana I planted in the fall.
Gladiolus byzantinus
This one is a wonderful stroke of fortune as most of them appeared and they are exceedingly beautiful!
Ornithogalum
In the spring I had planted some Ornithogalum divergens that I had found in the wild. They showed up in March and flowered very prettily if shortly. In the fall I added some Ornithogalum ponticum Sochi under the olive tree – so far only the leaves have appeared.
Small bulbs 2025
I added Crocus sieberii Firefly, which worked out very well, and added a mix of pinkt and white Ipheion uniflorum to the blue ones we had already. Muscari armeniacum was very pretty again and is spreading all over the garden. Of the many Muscari comosum I planted only three showed up after a long wait and they are quite puny – maybe they will need time to establish. Hyacinthoides hispanica also did not show up en masse but the ones that did very very pretty.
Leave a Reply