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Rukmini Iyer's avatar

Fantastic! Wish I had planted Finola. And you have solved my memory block on where the £500 a year Mitford budget story came from - it is also on my mind every time I buy plants 😂

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Horticulturalish's avatar

You're more than welcome to some of my 'Finola', Rukmini, for very generously sharing this post. Thank you!

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LisaG's avatar

Good to know that I almost make Vita’s small garden definition (a bit under half acre). I believe gardens are another art media, and therefore follow your bliss wherever it leads. And if you do fuck up/ don’t like the results, try something else. As the saying goes, you be you. Although at £6/bulb that £500 Mitford budget is shot 😳

(I really like Jackson Pollock, late FIL dismissed his work as just splotches. But I would hang one on my wall any day. Be more JP)

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Horticulturalish's avatar

BE MORE JP! YES! Thank you Lisa, I agree it is an art!

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Celia Cain, PhD's avatar

Exciting! I can’t wait to see it. I’m filled with trepidation over my 6 containers planted with tulips making it through a Canadian winter/squirrels. 🤞

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Horticulturalish's avatar

Fingers crossed, Celia! Do they usually pull through the winter there?

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Celia Cain, PhD's avatar

In the first year, I usually get between 70-85% of the tulips I plant in ground. Sometimes more, but squirrels and voles actively search for them. And I’m on clay soil. My neighbours and I have surprise squirrel-planted bulbs every year. I’ve never tried them in containers. That’s the uncertainty. They are under chicken wire, so mostly I wonder if they’ll get too cold.

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Horticulturalish's avatar

Oooh, I reckon you'll have great success with containers and chicken wire to protect. They're tough old bulbs. Keep us updated!

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India Knight's avatar

This post is heaven. I can't WAIT to see them in bloom - it's going to be amazing.

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Mariah W's avatar

Wow!! I love it - I’m a huge fan of overflowing gardens. Can’t wait to see pictures in the spring. I have a bunch of lily bulbs planted out front of my house and I love soooo much when they’re blooming.

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Horticulturalish's avatar

Oh I adore lilies - what kind are you growing?

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Nicolas Sutro's avatar

Mate, we are of a mind on tulips.

This looks wild (I mean, clearly not completely as they’re planted in containers of one type or another and neatly labelled [I love a label] but as in a confident exhibitionist assertion of presence.

As Vita said “cram…cram…cram…” (I think that’s accurate…).

I’m really into the biblical quantum you’ve got going down).

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Horticulturalish's avatar

"Cram cram cram"!! If that didn't sound sort of sexual/violent I would get a tattoo of it. I love it as a gardening philosophy and absolutely follow that maxim.

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Lindsay Osorio's avatar

If The Lizards come up right, show us a photo.

I planted them three years in a row and they were something different every time... my fingers are crossed.

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Horticulturalish's avatar

I am BESIDE MYSELF about The Lizards. SO EXCITED. I'll of course share a photo whatever happens - I've vowed to be transparent about both my successes AND my failures.

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Anne Wareham's avatar

You've got some SHOWING!!!! Jealous. I just have surfaces.

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Horticulturalish's avatar

I do! I did plant everything very poorly/shallowly though. And some went in as early as September I think while some I just planted a couple of weeks ago 🤣 I'll be SICK of tulips by May!

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Anne Wareham's avatar

That will be interesting - whether the planting times give you a real spread of flowering. A very interesting experiment as well as a real feast. Should be amazing.

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Linda Slow Growing in Scotland's avatar

I'll be tulip-living vicariously through you this year as I haven't planted any while my garden takes shape.

Garden controversies can be good entertainment value. I follow a few French gardening forums to keep up my French, have fresh gardening ideas, and for the hilarity (often useful for reason 1 as well). Latest response to a colour scheme which has provoked much Gallic "discussion" is "Vous sortez de quelle grotte?"

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Horticulturalish's avatar

Hahaha! I had no idea my colour scheme would provoke such strong feelings in others. But it was all be very polite, good natured, and tongue in cheek. Also, I LOVE that you read French gardening forums as a language exercise. What a bonne idée!

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Life in Victoriana's avatar

Oh, Vita...🤣.

Can't wait to see the riot of colour in your perfectly sized garden! Roll on April indeed.

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Horticulturalish's avatar

It is going to be *chaos*. Vita would hate it...

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