IN the excitement of ordering new spring-flowering bulbs, don’t forget that there are still some spectacular autumn-flowering bulbs to enjoy now. We habitually associate autumn with the last blooms of dahlias, asters and salvias before the frosts arrive, and the final fanfare of changing foliage colour in trees and shrubs. But there’s still plenty of colour to come from flowering perennials and many of these are bulbs like crocus and nerines.
You might think that it’s too late to plant autumn bulbs and tubers, and while many do need to be in the ground through the summer – nerines and dahlias, for example – there are still several that can be planted from the end of August well into September.
Flowering in October
One of these is the autumn crocus, which is probably the most familiar of the late-flowering bulbs. The best known species include the saffron crocus, , and , both of which flower into October fairly quickly crocus is that the leaves don’t appear until later in the growth cycle.
