p7 p29 p39 p52 Mail Order Catalogue Autumn 2017 p40 Plants and bulbs to flower in the spring Telephone 01460 242177 www.avonbulbs.co.uk Tel: 01460 242 177 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.avonbulbs.co.uk Avon Bulbs i Winners of… 30 Gold Medals at Chelsea in 31 years Avon bulbs contacts Welcome to the Email: Avon Bulbs autumn [email protected] Catalogue 2017 Web: www.avonbulbs.co.uk The past 30 years have seen our catalogues Tel: improve markedly although new enhancements get 01460 242177 progressively more subtle! It continues to be done 01460 249060 ‘in house’, written by us and with only a few plant images from plant image libraries, Fax: not written or produced by an agency or put together from scratch by someone 01460 249025 outside the business, but it is a time consuming process. Burnt House Farm Mid Lambrook This introduction is tackled last of all and South Petherton, Somerset this year it is being written in early June TA13 5HE shortly after our return from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 where we won our 30th Gold Medal. As watchers of the coverage on TV will know it was a hot week and some of the exhibits were looking a bit tired by the end of it, but for all that our plants fared much better than the cut Late flower exhibits! Availability We were particularly pleased to present a fine array of poppies which we had not succeeded in displaying so and Website well since 2011 (the third week in May is still a bit early for The website now contains a great them) as well as 26 different varieties of Tulip (which had deal more information about all to be carefully managed for colour) and Allium hyalinum the bulbs we offer, their history and provenance and more about – a new allium to us (also new to the show) about which the planting situations that suit you can read on page 11. In a year when the weather them, as well as a repeat of the conditions resulted in the plants being generally much planting instructions supplied taller than usual the Maianthemum bifolium (page 32), with the bulbs. which we had not shown before either, was a useful addition in leafy, calming shades of green with white If there is not enough information plume like flowers, looking much the same at the end of here for your needs, do have the week as it had at the beginning. They probably fared a look there instead. We also better than we did! We may even give some thought to mark bulbs as ‘Sold Out’ on the taking a year out from Chelsea. Time will tell. Chris Ireland-Jones website when they become Sold Out, so if you are ordering later in the season and want to check Dormant Snowdrops: on availability you might like to Our list has previously come out in past years in August check the website. and we have despatched the bulbs shortly thereafter but we anticipate an earlier list this year (although delivery still Also if we have small numbers of remains in August). The long awaited and much asked about Galanthus Midas will be listed (not at the wildly extortionate ‘special’ bulbs to sell we do tend prices some New snowdrops command because we hope to offer them on the website – to have enough available to satisfy a reasonable demand). check the Special Offers pages. Still no-one can anticipate things so getting in early would be advisable. That list will come out as an email or by post to those that have registered with us as Galanthophiles and then goes online on the website. ii Avon Bulbs Mail Order Catalogue Autumn 2017 Plants and Bulbs that mostly Late Summer 2017 flower in the autumn, soon after planting, Plants and bulbs to flower in the Autumn or else items that just prefer early Delivery from this section will be made mid-August to early September. Orders planting. close from this section in mid-September. Late Summer Amaryllis x amarygia parkeri alba Acis X Amarine tubergenii 56-11 autumnalis 106-10 Unusual hybrids between Amayllis Slender wiry green or russety and Nerines. Bright cerise pink coloured stems, carrying delicate flowered like Nerines but more like looking white papery bells. They Amaryllis in that they are winter Acis autumnalis were thought to be autumn growing so a little tender therefore flowering forms of the snowflake requiring some protection. family but are now in a distinct Sept/ Oct • 15” (38cm) group of their own, ideal for a £4.00 each trough or container that stays drier. Plant the bulbs (only the size of large peas) 3” (7.5cm) deep, nearly Colchicum touching. Easy to grow in good, deep Aug/Sept • 9” (22cm) moisture retentive soil, these £7.50 for 5 appear from their summer dormancy without their leaves to flower in the autumn – hence their Amaryllis common name of ‘naked ladies’. Amaryllis (and their hybrids) A pointer to the end of summer, are winter growing, hence with their bright flowers last incredibly exposed leaves in winter do well considering their apparent need to be planted in a sheltered fragility. The leaves appear in the Colchicum agrippinum Amaryllis x tubergenii site where they are likely not early spring. They need planting to be chilled below about -4°C. 3” (8cm) deep - perhaps a little A cool conservatory should more for ones with bigger bulbs be fine, with the pots moved – and 6” (15cm) apart. They will agrippinum 73-19 outside in the early spring. A naturalise effectively, but the summer baking in dry conditions mower will have to be restrained A naturally occurring hybrid that ‘ripens and primes’ the bulbs for until the leaves wither away in dates back to 1879 and very flowering. In favoured spots one June. Please order early – after unusual. Much smaller than the ® may be possible to grow them the end of September they goblet shaped forms below, the successfully outside. seem to flower regardless of the flowers on these open almost RHS Perfect for Pollinators. conditions. flat, with broad pointed petals in The RHS Perfect for Pollinators X Amarygia pinkish-lilac, heavily chequered mark is only given to plants that with darker markings. Narrow, parkeri alba 56-10 Plants we list which support pollinating insects in have received the RHS wavy-edged leaves appear after gardens. Bees, butterflies, moths, A hybrid between Amaryllis and Commendation ‘Award flowering. These increase in fertile hoverflies and many others visit Brunsvigia producing very large of Garden Merit’ are now soil, in an open sunny site. Being flowers to feed on nectar and bulbs. Flowering with apple-white tagged with the trophy symbol. Space pollen; while doing so they transfer does not allow us to add the hardiness more petite they are possibly better trumpets with a huge perfume rating – please be aware the award in a raised bed or trough. Tough for pollen and increase seed set and arranged all around a green stem. applies to the ease of cultivation, all of that and increasing in sunny fruit development. Find out more at Sept/Oct • 20” (50cm) excellence and constitution, but not conditions. rhs.org.uk/plants £8.00 necessarily hardiness. Sept • 4” (10cm) £5.00 each Tel: 01460 242 177 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.avonbulbs.co.uk Avon Bulbs 1 Photo credit: GAP Images p Colchicum autumnale Photo credit: GAP Images p Colchicum autumnale Colchicum Waterlily album Photo credit: GAP Images p Colchicum SPECIOSum Colchicum speciosum album Cyclamen coum autumnale 73-05 speciosum Cyclamen coum roseum 51-117 Graded for flower colour in the Softly, satin-sheened in mauve. album 73-16 These are all hardy, tough and spring so these are larger tubered They naturalise most effectively Gorgeous shimmering goblets in perennial and once established either in sun or partial shade where pure white. A very special plant will seed about. If you can plant and all will show pale pink flowers they often produce several flowers which could be the highlight of a them early (as a consequence with the characteristically darker from each corm. An easy British carefully chosen planting scheme of ordering from this section) ‘nose’. native known as Meadow Saffron, in fertile soil, ideally where it is not these Cyclamen will arrive £13.00 for 3 Wychwood Forest has thousands too dark in the spring, but they ‘properly’ dormant and ready to flowering each autumn. could help brighten up a shady pop in and awake in their new coum album 51-118 Sept • 6” (15cm) corner in the autumn. At the end of circumstances. You may order White flowered, but even the white £11.25 for 3 the 19th Century the famous firm of them also from the Autumn ones have a dark pink ‘nose’. Backhouse in Yorkshire were selling section, but by then there will £13.50 for 3 autumnale them for 5 Guineas each! Worth probably be some growth visible on them. These are all seed raised every penny now! album 73-06 in the UK. coum dark pink 51-131 The white-flowered form of the Sept/Oct • 8” (20cm) Tubers that have been selected for £16.50 for 3 species above, although some their dark pink flowers. are pinkish-white. They tolerate SPRING £13.50 for 3 full sun but are especially useful Water-Lily 73-23 in some shade in damper, but not A multi-petalled variety which opens FLOWERING coum waterlogged conditions. out widely in the sun with multiple Silver Leaf 51-119 Sept • 6” (15cm) flower stems, flowering somewhat FORMS The rounded leaves are largely £10.50 for 3 later than the others.