A bulb with attitude

THE basis of good gardening is centred on a love of plants, and that is why it is hard to meet a keen gardener who does not love all the plants in their garden.

Bulbous plants are particularly favoured, especially those which start their cycle of life wrinkled and oddly shaped. These packed reserves of food are the most accommodating of all of nature’s surprises, and irrespective of variety, most will come with next season’s flowers already tucked safely inside them. So long as you plant them the right way up, they’ll give you a return in terms of blossom and foliage in their first season. Even if you don’t, they’ll probably flower just the same.

Take Gladiolus callianthus as an example. Now if the mere mention of the work ‘gladiolus’ conjures up visions of nothing more than the blowsy florists’ hybrids perhaps I should call this delicate, understated variety by its old name of Acidanthera muriale.