Garden Centre

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Forcing, faking and flowering

Victoria has a brilliant post about the natural and unnatural history of the poinsettia, that most forced of winter flowers (not that it’s a flower, exactly) which led me to reflect on the nature of flowers in winter in a temperate climate and why we invest so much in something so transient. And truly, so fake, because it can hardly survive here even with a lot of care.

I don’t like poinsettias that much, have never owned one, and never bought one for somebody else. I do have a dirty secret though – at this time of year I haunt garden centres, buying up the pots of forced hyacinth bulbs that they sell of a half price or better between now and February. Often they are droopy – the flowers hang over the edge of the pot instead of standing up like soldiers in overlarge busbys. I don’t mind that. I buy them for their fragrance, to which I am addicted, and then to plant them out in the garden, where they will flower much later in the following year, but flower they will.

I don’t force any bulb – I am too lazy. But I do like to have something going on in the garden at all times, and right now it’s my winter planters that have lovely tall stems of miniature iris already, the first anemones are going for it (why? It’s way too early but they obviously want to beat the rush) and the stubby emergence of the hyacinths has begun too. It’s just as exciting, to me, as the whole showy, fragrance-free, delicacy of the poinsettia, but my bulbs will survive without needing much more care than a regular repotting and they provide fragrance, colour and – dare I say it? – excitement, for many years.

Labels: poinsettia, Victoria's Backyard, winter bulbs, winter planters

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:43 AM

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