Flower show: the best bulbs to plant this autumn for a blooming good spring

One of the questions I am asked most is: “Will my spring bulbs come back next year?” The queries spike in early summer, when the exhibition of successive bulbous plants has come to a close and gardeners are wondering what to do with their declining plants. How might they repeat the show next year?

My suggestion: remove the spent flower spike but let the leaves die back gradually – bulbs need to draw and store energy for future blooms, and they do this via photosynthesis. If transferring bulbs to the garden from a pot, get them in deep to keep them cool in summer and better protected in winter. And throw in some grit below the bulbs to improve drainage. But the best way of upping the chances of blooms returning is to choose the right bulbs in the first place.

Some are more likely to repeat-flower than others. The more showy, hybridised cultivars, particularly crossbred tulips, often pack a punch in their first spring, but deteriorate thereafter. Less tampered with “species” bulbs are more reliably perennial. Unaltered by breeding, they retain the vigour and vitality inherent in their wild constitution: late-blooming poet’s daffodil, Narcissus poeticus, for example; the much-adored scarlet Tulipa sprengeri; the “earthy” tones of Europe’s feral fritillaries; or the slender arching stems of the yolk-yellow woodland tulip. Site them right, and they’ll not only keep blooming but also gradually multiply or “naturalise”.

By trialling a great many different bulbs in pots, I have steadily expanded my list of species that are as hardy as they are exuberant. There’s immense pleasure in knowing that after the show is over, I can rehome them out in the garden and anticipate their return next year.

Best early bloomers (Feb-March flowering)

Dwarf iris (Iris reticulata)
Native to Turkey, the low-growing yet completely mesmerising Iris reticulata is known for its many different-coloured cultivars. Ultimately, none of them can really improve upon the original: a beguiling blue with a glowing yellow at the centre of each suspended sepal. One of the first bulbs to flower, it is best planted with grit for drainage.

£4.75 for 25 bulbs
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Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum)
Three times the height of a snowdrop and exquisitely detailed, with a delicate green dot at the end of each tepal, Leucojum aestivum forms wonderfully tight clumps that reappear with strong shoots each spring. Great for damp, shaded areas.

£3.75 for five bulbs
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Try also the shorter, similarly spreading “spring snowflake”, Leucojum vernum.

Tenby daffodil (Narcissus obvallaris)
You can still find wild Tenbys growing in the churchyards of Pembrokeshire, their glaucous, spear-like foliage yielding nodding heads of compact butter-yellow trumpets. Considered the most perfectly proportioned of all daffodils, the Tenby will spread well on moist, sunny ground.

£6.50 for 10 bulbs
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Try also the closely related, paler wild daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus.

Best for mid season (April-May flowering)

Armenian grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum)
For me, there’s no better “filler” bulb for pot displays than a muscari. Long-flowering during the middle of the spring window, they provide a bright backdrop to complement other, taller bulbs. There are some fantastic armeniacum cultivars in differing blues, but the violet-toned kinds naturalise well on most soils.

£9.99 for 85 bulbs
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Woodland tulip (Tulipa sylvestris)
My favourite tulip. With wilfully wavy stems and the most elegant flowers, sylvestris is one of the few tulip species suited to damper, semi-shaded settings. They are as attractive in a pot as they are set loose in a border, particularly when planted at high density.

£8.95 for 15 bulbs
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Try also either the stunning flame-petalled Tulipa acuminata, or smaller, coppered-orange Tulipa orphanidea.

Pointed-petal fritillary (Fritillaria acmopetala)
It’s hard to choose a favourite fritillary – there are so many enthralling species. Acmopetala, however, with its gold-centred and apple-striped bells, wins the endurance award. I once stumbled upon decades-old survivors still thriving in a neglected garden in Suffolk.

£4.70 for five bulbs
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Try also the refined, grape-like Fritillaria uva-vulpis or the tall and tendrilled Fritillaria verticillata.

Best latecomers (May-June flowering)

Drooping star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum nutans)
Ignore that first ill-chosen epithet: “drooping” is a poor translation of the Latin nutans, meaning “nodding”, which it does gracefully. This is one of my earliest species-bulb loves: you won’t believe something so magnetically intricate and downright fancy runs feral in some wilder corners of Europe. Grow in groups of five or more.

£3 for 20 bulbs
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Try also Ornithogalum umbellatum, a lower, broader, chandelier of a plant that, if happy, multiplies almost too quickly.

Naples garlic (Allium cowanii)
Having discovered the cream-white clusters of this Mediterranean species some years back, I now wouldn’t be without it. And it’s great for mixing in a pot among late-blooming bulbs.

£3.75 for 25 bulbs
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Honey garlic (Allium siculum)
Few flowering bulbs are as simultaneously rich in colour, magnificently detailed and as beloved of pollinators as the honey garlic. It is a true showstopper among the season’s closing acts. But be warned: commit this one to the garden at your own risk – there’s “naturally spreading” and there’s rampant …

£9.99 for 25 bulbs
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Try also the mauve drumstick allium, Allium sphaerocephalon.

Meadow squill (Scilla litardierei)
A pretty domed squill from the Balkans, this graceful scilla is last to flower but worth the wait. Stamped with an RHS garden merit award, the medium-height, amethyst-blue litardierei is brimming with wild charm.

£5.50 for 25 bulbs
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Try also the lower-growing, densely spreading Turkish squill, Scilla bithynica.