If you’re going to plant bulbs, do it in big drifts

Whether it's drifts of daffodils, heady hyacinths or tantalising tulips, you can pep up your patio or give your borders a boost with these easy-to-grow bulbs.

Think carefully about the effect you want to create and how you are going to achieve it before buying and planting, though. Flowerbulbs with different flowers and foliage can create very different looks.

"You can accentuate the colour of a gold-variegated evergreen by adding yellow daffodils or tulips," says award-winning garden designer Andrew McIndoe, the author of Unwins Book Of Bulbs (Westland, £9.99).

"Try contrasting deep plum tulips against a yellow-foliage shrub, or blend them with one that has wine-red leaves. Pink tulips are wonderful with silver-blue foliage, as are purple and blue crocus."

Good contrasts include tulipa Black Parrot' against Philadelphus coronarius Aureus', while the purple balls of allium Globemaster' sit well with the feathery foliage of fennel. Drifts of bulbs are often more effective, as few look good planted individually unless they are big, such as large alliums, lilies and crown imperials.

Andrew advises: "In large beds and borders, repeat groups of the same variety through the planting. This amplifies the effect and gives continuity."

Unless you have a really formal planting scheme, avoid planting bulbs in straight lines, which looks contrived. Personally, I prefer flurries of bulbs of the same colour, whether in a border or in pots. I love small terracotta pots filled with blue muscari (grape hyacinths), carpets of snowdrops filling in the light shade under trees, and drifts of bluebells in woodlands in dappled shade.

Andrew says that blue can prove a useful link between other colours in the border and that adding blue can make other colours work together.

In rockeries and small borders, dwarf varieties are ideal, such as narcissus February Gold' and Hawera', but avoid mixed daffodils as they flower at different times and the colour mix isn't always complementary. Tall Darwin and lily-flowering tulips are perfect for planting with herbaceous perennials, as their blooms rise above the emerging foliage.

Many bulbs thrive in shade or semi shade, in woodlands under trees, where may other plants would fail, so make the most of them.

Remember, too, that bulbs such as tulips and daffodils (narcissi) planted directly in a border can become a nuisance after flowering, as their faded foliage is unsightly and you might forget where you planted them when cultivating the ground in the dormant season.

If you're worried about this you may be better off planting them in terracotta or dark ceramic pots and placing them unobtrusively in your border during the flowering season.

That way, they can be removed immediately afterwards and the bulbs put somewhere dark and dry until the autumn, when they can be replanted. You can then fill your pots with annuals for some summer colour.

Spring bulbs can be planted straight into outdoor containers and left on the patio until spring, although I tend to put them somewhere where they won't suffer too much damp over the winter and stick them on pot feet so the bulbs don't rot.

By spring, you should have a burst of colour which can continue into early summer if you choose your bulbs wisely.

BEST OF THE BUNCH

DahliaDahlias have been back in vogue for some time now, their giant flowers in a vast array of colours towering above shorter perennials.

Popular varieties include the scarlet red Bishop of Llandaff', which grows to around a metre (3ft) tall and whose beetroot foliage provides striking contrast to brightly coloured perennials.

There have been lots of oranges in the gardening shows this year, planted amid deep purple salvias and aubergine-coloured heucheras, and if you want to go for that effect, go for bold statements such as David Howard' and Harvest Amanda'.

Dahlia tubers should be planted after the last frost in late spring around 15cm (6in) deep. You'll need to take precaution against slugs and stake tall varieties and keep them well fed and watered in dry spells. They should flower from mid or late summer well into autumn and are great for cutting.

When the first frost blackens the leaves, dig up the tubers, cut the stems off 5cm (2in) above the base, wash the soil off the roots, allow the tubers to dry off and and store them in a frost-free shed for the winter.