5 of the best indigenous bulbs for your spring garden

Start planting now for a colourful spring show, writes Andrew Unsworth

There is something especially rewarding about planting bulbs in autumn and waiting for them to flower in spring. Maybe because it’s a guaranteed show, provided you keep them reasonably watered. In many cases the bulb houses the flower stem ready to emerge.

South African gardeners have fallen out of love with the exotic bulbs that mean spring in the northern hemisphere, for example daffodils. They seldom  flower  in their second year as they don’t naturalise outside  their climate zone. It’s  cheaper to buy a bunch of flowers at the florist in spring.

Anemones and ranunculus are still worth growing, but I have struggled to get them to repeat the show two  years in a row.

Of course, gardeners don’t need  to look abroad in the first place: South Africa is packed with flowering bulbs. Most flower in spring and make good garden plants. All of them will reward you for giving them good composted soil and sunshine. 

Here are five of the best:

1) Freesias are the cultivated hybrids of the wild plants which grow on the eastern side of Southern Africa, mostly in the Cape. They come in many colours, usually mixed, but you can also buy  packs of white or yellow, which  have the best scent. Your plants may  not be quite as tall and perfect as  commercially grown flowers sold in florists, but they will be beautiful nonetheless! Save the seeds and they will  grow easily the next winter. 

FlowerPhotos/UIG via Getty Images 

story_article_right1

2) Ixias, like freesias, are members of the iris family and also indigenous to the Cape. They will give you an even better display of colours, ranging from white to pinks, mauves, purples, yellow and even green. They are often bi-coloured with a darker centre.  They are known abroad as the African corn lily.

DeAgostini/Getty  

3) Sparaxis, with their clear and bright colours around a yellow centre, with purple or black blotches,  are almost jewel-like. They must have well-drained soil, and if they do,  you can leave them  all year. 

DeAgostini/Getty Images 

story_article_right2

4) Watsonias, indigenous to the Cape, Lesotho and Swaziland,  are familiar to Cape readers as they are  extensively grown by parks and municipalities and, of course,  in nature. There are about 55 species, and they flower in white, orange, red, mauve salmon and more.

They are  weeds in Australia, New Zealand and some Indian ocean islands, but they belong here so you can happily plant them. They take most garden conditions, even waterlogged ground.

Gallo Images 

5) Scadoxus are one of our most stunning indigenous bulbs, although we share them with the whole of east Africa from Sudan to the Cape. They are often known as paintbrush lilies because of their heads of numerous stamens, but have many other names: snake lilies, African blood lilies, rooikwas in Afrikaans and isisphompho in Zulu.

They can form huge clumps if left in a semi-shaded position with plenty of leaf compost. There are many different varieties and colours, usually orange to red, but can be found in  green or yellow, with specked or purple bracts around the flower heads. You will find potted bulbs in nurseries that specialise in indigenous plants.