It was a cold, dark, damp morning as Lady Anne’s Garden’s team ventured into the garden, armed with tools and ready to meet the challenge: 0peration Bulb Planting...
This task had been postponed for a number of weeks due to the excessively wet weather we’ve had of late. The clay soil in the Arboretum and meadow areas to be used for planting had become thoroughly saturated, and we had visions of 5,000 Camassia bulbs flooding down through the gully that joins the two halves of the garden with the next rainfall! (Well, this is Devon after all and only slightly exaggerated in the precipitation department, I might add)!
Full of team spirit and ready for action, we entered Lady Anne’s Arboretum. One by one, we endeavoured to remove plugs of soil to a depth of about 6” (150mm) using our long-handled bulb planters. Although the ground was moist it had drained sufficiently, but there were still bridges to cross… Stones, and lots of them! I was convinced at one point I had targeted a rather large boulder several metres across or maybe the archaeological remains of some centuries old village buried beneath.
Gradually we made progress, placed a bulb in the bottom of each hole and replaced the plug of soil directly on top, gently firming it in with the careful bottom of a boot – which is all there is to it.
For this stage of our bulb planting we had chosen two forms of camassia: the blue Camassia quamash, highly suitable for our conditions as it originates from damp meadowland in North America, where it was actually once an important food source for the native American Indians. The plant has strappy bright-green leaves and a foot-long (30cm) raceme of large starry bright-blue flowers. We also used Camassia leichtlinii subsp. leichtlinii AGM, which has white flowers.
Next year in late spring we will witness a sea of bright blue with rippling waves of white foam. In the warmer months the meadow we’re developing in this area is really beautiful to see, attracting huge numbers of insects. Frogs and toads enjoy this abundance of food; I have seen them many times in this area.
So, a productive day’s work – and we’re looking forward to seeing the bulbs flower next year.
Operation Bulb Planting completed!
Rosemoor bulb displays in Spring 2008
Penny King, Gardener, Woody Ornamental, Estate & Services