garden notes

GARDEN EXPERT SARAH RAVEN EXPLAINS THE BEST WAYS TO GROW FORCED BULBS NOW, IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

- SARAH RAVEN

It's good to start preparing a few mini indoor pots to decorate window ledges, shelves and tables and make our houses colourful and fragrant in time for Christmas. Hyacinths in particular take their time and should be planted soon, followed by the galloping-grower, the paperwhite daffodil. It's also worthwhile having a walk around the garden to pick seedheads before they get blown and broken. My favourite garden-harvested indoor decorations are allium seedheads, of almost any size, left natural for the autumn and then sprayed either crimson or silver for Christmas.

SINGLE HYACINTHS

In terms of forcing bulbs, let’s start with the simplest: just a few hyacinth bulbs in glass forcers. You can buy tailor-made forcers, but any narrow bottle where you can jam a bulb in the neck is fine. Buy prepared hyacinths which have been pre-chilled. They’re a little more expensive but it cuts six weeks off the forcing timetable.