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List of bulbs used + results click here.

Pictures of bulbs: http://www.bulbsociety.org/gallery and http://www.bulbargence.com 

I really adore bulbs. Of course there are favourites among them. Oxalis  species and hippeastrum  with small flowers - from South Africa - I think most attractive. Fortunately both do quite well in these regions. 
I would not be surprised if Oxalis rubra is a native here. It starts flowering really early, sometimes March, goes on right until June/July and has a second go at it from September onwards. Contrary to what the name suggests the flowers are not red, but pink with a darker heart. They may be used for cut flowers for a short period. Lovely when put together with Dichondra 'Silver Falls' . 
If you have to pull it up for some reason you may find a long, white carrot like root under the original bulb. 
The common varieties like Oxalis triangularis en Oxalis deppei 'Iron Cross' do quite well in these parts.The lovely purple leaves of oxalis  triangularis are sometimes gnawed by  presumably snails or slugs. They disappeared in 2007 though.
Worth while is Oxalis lasiandra. This one has unusual, bronze coloured leaves, surprisingly shaped, like small horse chestnut leaves. It has dark pink flowers.
I have been here for three years now and come across oxalis lasiandra plants where I never put them, so they must self seed.

Another nice one: Oxalis bowiei. It flowers from August onward, all its parts XXL. Freshly green, large leaves. Flowers, also large, pink again. They do well outdoors here. The corms look like garlic cloves. I got mine as a present and I don't know where you may find it.

The other day I saw it on a sales list of an English bulb grower: Broadleigh gardens (sales@broadleighbulbs.co.uk), but I have never tried them (yet). 

I usually buy my bulbs from Rita van der Zalm.  The costs of sending are more than compensated by the prices of the bulbs themselves. Bulbs are quite expensive in France (as they are in the UK). There are several mail order businesses in France. I ordered their catalogues to satisfy my curiosity and ordered in return. Some results were good, some poor. See: miscellaneous

  
 

 

 

Oxalis lasiandra, with its mini horse chestnut leaves flowers in summer. They are lovely in a good pot but also do well in the garden itself..
A great present for someone crazy about plants: a handsome, smooth, preferably old, small, straight earthenware pot (we call them Belgian pots) with one or two oxalis lasiandra bulbs. The bulbs are for sale at: Rita van de Zalm. www.ritavanderzalm.nl

 
Oxalis depressa looks nice, but is invasive. Once planted you'll never get rid of them again. There is a native type like that here in France, I don't know its name. The bulbs look innocent, but they form long runners below the soil with new bulblets at the ends. Those will flower after a year and are quite pretty, pale pink. I was given it in a load of earth ... I try to get them out using my little gadget mentioned on the miscellaneous pages, preferably bulb and all, but to no avail. I have been warned against Oxalis pes-caprae, yellow flowered and lovely to the eye (I have seen it on photos only) which seems to have been introduced to these parts. Only to be planted in pots and beware of any seed.

I am trying out blue Oxalis laciniata, from the UK. So far I have never been successful with the gray leaved species of oxalis like Oxalis adenophylla, so I don't know how they will do. Their first year was not very promising ...
In January 2006 I hope to finally lay my hands on Oxalis massoniana from South Africa. Its flowers are burnt orange, wow! A gorgeous photo is on page 100 in 'Bulbs for all Climates' - The Australian Women's Weekly Garden Guides.

Sternbergia lutea

In France the bulbs are hardly available. Someone might give you some, you could buy at Rita's. They multiply easily. 
There is not much to be told about my love for small flowered hippeastrum at this moment (autumn 2005). They do quite well in my garden without any protection. But disappeared in 2007.
I only have a few but they are dormant now, with just the odd leaf showing. One is called Hippeastrum  sonatinii 'Veneto', pinkish. Sonatinii stands for: with the smallest flowers, you just have to know. Hippeastrum 'Topchoice', bright red, I planted in a pot to start with. Three of them. But they bore so many flowers that there was just no room, so I planted them outdoors among euphorbia cypariassis which made a lovely combination. Another one is unnamed and pale orange with a greenish centre. This one has flowered every year so far in early summer. Whenever I find out its name I'll publish it.  
Sternbergia lutea is a native. It flowers in September with large, 'crocuses'. The French call it 'crocus jaune'. Later glossy, dark green ribbon shaped leaves which are not bad!

Cyclamen hederifolium or neapolitanum flowers from August. This species self seeds profusely, mostly in the wrong spots. I put the seedlings - each with its darling mini tuber - in a nice pot to plant out a year later. Pots are watered daily so last year's seedlings are in leaf now, while those in the garden will come into leaf much later. I have no experience whatsoever with other cyclamen. I just planted Cyclamen coum **) for the first time and have been trying to find Cyclamen graecum *) which supposedly grows in clefts in the rocks in Greece, so why not here ...
*) got some in 2006. One flower in 2007, but plenty of leaves later!
*) it flowered quite well in 2008, very first good results.

One allium is in flower now (late summer): Allium tuberosum, sown two years ago.

I am not good at sowing, French houses have no windowsills usually and sowing outdoors is not always successful. But we are going to have one balcony changed into a hothouse soon ...
This allium is known as Chinese chives and seems to taste nice in a salad. I only have one plant and shall not touch it for something worldly like salad. The taste has a whiff of garlic in it. It is an elegant allium and looks good against a dark background. I once read that you should remove the flowers in its first year (which I did). Good scent.
Other alliums/allia?: Allium neapolitanum is a native. Its white flowers in May are good cutting flowers. Allium roseum, also growing wild here flowers a little later, shell pink, lovely. Buy a few, if necessary and you will forever have them. Allium flavum is surprisingly resistant to heat. They flower in July. You must get close to see them well though as they are rather small. Rita van der Zalm calls them: 'tiny, exploding fireworks, over a thin, but firm stem', in her catalogue (in Dutch, sorry), a well contrived description. On photos I love Allium caeruleum as I do in reality, but I can't get them going. They flower in a miserly way and the year after they have gone walkabout. All these allium have since disappeared (2008), both in the part that is regularly watered and the part that is never watered. 
But Allium ramosum does quite well. 

Photo stolen from the internet by one Juan Luis.

Leucojum autumnalis is attractive for those who like 'dainty', tiny hanging bells with some pink on the outside, no taller than 15cms. It flowers from the end of August for several weeks and produces quite a lot of seed which germinates easily and will flower two years later.
It is a native of other Mediterranean countries like Spain and Portugal. By now - 2006 - I find them all over the garden.
I just read that its name is being changed into Acis autumnalis.
A native plant which many covet is Aphyllanthes monspeliensis. A tuft of thin sprigs, somewhat like Festuca glauca, but thicker, decorated with sky blue flowers in May. During the flowering period they quite spectacular because of the masses of flowers, but afterwards the plants are not all that nice to look at. It is more or less impossible to transplant aphyllanthes. You may succeed with very young seedlings but it is difficult to find them. Seed is hard to come by as well, but once the plant has settled in your garden it will spread itself readily. I cut the tufts in late autumn to make them look better the year after. 

For those who still happen to want to buy bulbs to enjoy next spring: Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty', which flowers quite early and is cream as expected, does very well indeed. Crocus chrysanthus originates from Greece. The next one from Croatia: Crocus tomassinianus 'Ruby Giant'  is a top choice in Holland but less successful here. A small tulip, Tulipa 'Little Beauty', also does well. A darling little thing, rosy red with a blue centre and no taller than appr. 20 cms. I Have seen both 'Cream Beauty' and 'Little Beauty' in a large garden center in Béziers (from the Netherlands!) the crocus at a reasonable price, the tulip rather expensive. The tulip can be left in the ground, you don't have to store it for summer. 
There was something we called Abessinian gladioli scores of years ago. Then the name was changed into accidantera and later again into Gladiolus callianthus. I had them for years in the Netherlands. I used to plant them in April, they would flower from August onward and later, when they had completely turned brown I would pull them up and store them, leaves and all, in a dustbin bag close to the boiler for the central heating. They even produced bulblets, called 'beads' in Dutch and every year I could give away quite a few bulbs as I had so many!
I thought they would be really suitable for this climate, but no: they start growing after the heat of August, come into a great deal of leaf but flowers are scarce. 

Now that autumn is upon us I find autumn flowering crocus in the garden. This one is Crocus speciosus 'Oxonian' 
It grows quite easily. Crocus speciosus is found in the Krim region.
Crocus - from Greece - which I like a lot because it keeps well in the rain unfortunately does not seem to like the south of France all that much. Better in 2006 though.
 20th January 2006    
 Here is to a whole new season!! We had our first day of spring yesterday with temperatures rising to app. 20 degrees! Wow. 
 

I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of two lovely colchiums: Colchium hungaricum on the left and c. laetum on the right. C. laetum in spite of its happy name is pretty, but the flowers last only for a day or two. Longer in 2006. Laetum is an autumn flowering type but accidentally flowered in the spring of this year.
As colchiums usually flower in autumn they are quite interesting! 
Another early 'bird' is Narcissus romieuxii from Marocco. It usually flowers around Christmas, but December has been too cold. It was actually the first time I saw the flowers - we always visit our homeland at Christmas - and discovered they were yellow rather than cream as I had expected them to be. Its leaves are spriggish and quite long. They appear around November. They grow to approximately 12-15 cms.
2008: these are doing very well and they multiply!

I spent hours today on the internet trying to find out the exact name of the bright yellow crocuses suddenly showing up. The thing is you order things, plant them and forget where you put what! This is Crocus vitellinus, from Turkey and Syria. Small, covered with feathery pale brown markings outside which look like someone has tried to erase them and with a dark stem. I have the book on bulbs by Martin & Rix in a Dutch version. It mentions this crocus in the index with the number of the page and all, but it is nowhere to be found in the book itself!!! Nearby grows Crocus korolkowii 'Kiss of spring' but it does not do very well. Korolkowii is from Pakistan.
10th February today. It is still cold, but sunny. Late afternoons are quite nice. Iris danfordiae has made its appearance - good smell if you don't mind going on your knees! - and the Crocus 'Cream Beauty' , one of my favourites, is starting out as well. It did not do all that well in the Netherlands, but is a prize here.

Crocus 'Cream Beauty' flowers quite early and does really well here, one of the best!
Also - 17th February - the small blue irisses are starting: Iris reticualata 'Cantab' is one I particularly like. Its is not a bad idea to give them some fertilizer at this stage. Something you use for indoor plants usually works quite well. 
2008: gradually disappearing

Muscari macrocarpum 'Golden Fragrance' started off at the beginning of February. Today - 17th - it is in full flower and will keep flowering for quite a while. It is my best find of 2005: the flowers are quite big and have a subtle fragrance.
Where to find these small bulbs: see bulb list!
This one gets some seeds which are not too difficult to produce more bulbs from. You need patience though.

 

The white crocus on the left is one of the first to flower. I do not know its name. Does anyone?
The purple one is Crocus tommassinianus 'Ruby Giant' , an excellent performer in the Netherlands, but not doing quite so well here. Lovely though.  
 
 

Scilla bifolia does not perform as well as it does in Holland, but its lovely blue is irresistible.
Ipheion uniflorum grows naturally in these parts. Its Dutch name is something like 'little old ladies'! Here they are blooming in the protection of a warm wall, they will soon appear everywhere. Ipheion "Rolf Fiedler' is of a more intense blue: strongly recommended.
I once saw a picture of Oxalis massoniana in a book (Bulbs for all climates, an issue of the Australian Women's Weekly Garden Guides (1994), page 100) to which I immediately lost my soul. Ever since I have been trying to find it and so I finally did, on the internet, in South Africa. November 2004. (Photo below left)
I mailed the supplier who told me to order in January and when I did they were sold out. Like any other gardener I do have a lot of patience, so I could wait another year. In December 2005 I was again advised to order in January. Which I did. Jim replied he only had a few but he would dig some up just for me. So I ordered some more bulbs a.o. Oxalis cathara - which is a sort of must for an oxalis freak living in Cathares' country - on the condition they would be accompanying o. massoniana. One day I received glad tidings: the package was on its was. I prepared my very best pot for the coveted oxalis. A package decorated with colourful South African stamps sporting birds and such duly arrived a few days ago. It did not contain oxalis massoniana. I do have a lovely photo, pinched from another website: Kellydale Nursery's in New Zealand. They do not export bulbs!
I'll keep you informed! 
Jim - quite a nice guy - sent them later. It took a year and a half to get them to flower, but finally they did. They were white ... This oxalis has to have its feet wet when in flower, so  put the pot in a dish containing water. They will wither a little later and can be kept completely dry during the hot summer months.
On the right: Ranunculus ficaria 'Salmon's White', which I brought from my garden in Holland. This pilewort is not as expansive as the ordinary one and has large, creamy flowers. Recommended. For sale a.o. at Rita's.
The daffodil is my favourite:
Narcissus J.P. Milner. They do not perform as they do in colder and wetter areas, but as this year I have flowers, possibly because there has been so much rain.

On the far left a white form of ipheion. It has been given to me as being 'Albert Castillo' , but I am not sure about the name, as Albert should have more than one flower to one stem (?).
The other is Gladiolus tristis which I find a real gem. I should have bought 25, but they are expensive (for sale at bulb'argences.) They are quite tall, 70 cms or so, very thin and have a delicious perfume. Flowers in March/April. Watch out for caterpillars.
The thing is that you never expect anything that grows well in a cool place like the Netherlands would do well in the south of France as well. But there are some surprises. This Tulipa 'Little Beauty' and what an apt name! I have actually bought some at a local garden centre. But they are sold by Rita as well. She describes their colour as being thyrian purple, so if you always wondered about that colour: here it is!

There is is a Dutch bulb grower.In the Camargue. He has edited a wonderful little catalogue with mouthwatering pictures of Mediterrenean bulbs.
Seduced by these wonderful photos I ordered some exciting bulbs a few years ago like gladiolus tristis (see above), easy - he said - fritellaria uva vulpis and Romulea engleri, in this photo. I had little success with these (expensive) bulbs. The fritellaria and the romulea did not show up at all and the gladiolus flowered only poorly. In my opinion bulbs should always flower: the flower is supposed to be inside the bulb when it is sold. The sellers should tell the customer about exceptions, like the difficult Cardiocrinum giganteum e.g. 
I was not happy about the results and wrote an e-mail to Bulb'Argence about the disappointing performance of his bulbs. Answer was: your fault! Which is not an uncommon answer in cases like this, but! 
I had promised this person corms of my Ranunculus ficaria 'Salmon's White' though and a promise is a promise, whether I am angry or not, so I sent him the promised corms.
Months later I received a few tiny bulbs by way of thanks and they were ... romulea engleri. And dash it: they dó flower and I have even found one from the year before. Funny little thing, just above the earth, though some have an ordinary height.
One of the best of all: Scilla peruviana and its colour is just as blue as in the picture. This one flowers in May with up to 10 cms bouquets. The bulbs hardly need any care at all: just plant them and cover them up with some good soil (which I usually mix with sand), water once to settle the soil and forget about them. They start growing in September. Once a year (November) I give some bone meal or cow's manure. You can buy bulbs at Vreeken's. If you google Vreeken you'll find their site. 

The hippeastrum on the left flowers on a regular basis. It does not need any special care, just one gift of fertilizer once a year is enough. 2008: it flowered quite a few times, but disappeared in the long dry summer of 2007.
With Crocus goulymii we have arrived in the month of October. This species flowers rather profusely, but even better: it withstands rain. Where other autumn flowering types fall over when it is raining - Crocus speciosus this year was without hope and no seed! - this one will proudly stay upright.

A pretty oxalis from South Africa accidentally arrived among other corms/bulbs of the oxalis family. These days with digital cameras and e-mail things are rather easy to find out, so the guy in South Africa told me: Pxalis dentata. Quite a happy little thing, but I suspect inclined to be invasive, so better keep it in a pot.

November 2006 Last year I found just 2 of these crocuses and could not for the life of me find out what their proper name was. I was a bit surprised this year when I discovered a whole bunch of them. So I started searching again. A friend finally told me what they were: Crocus medius and as you may understand: highly recommended.
Further investigation solved the problem how they got there. Well, that was quite simple: I bought them. But I bought them as Crocus ligusticus.  My problem last year was that crocus ligusticus was not supposed to have any leaves when flowering, but mine had. Brian Mathew, the British crocus specialist, says that there are exceptions. So Crocus medius = crocus ligusticus and may or may not have leaves when flowering ...
Problem solved. Aren't they lovely, by the way? They are to be found in the area between Nice and Genoa.

16th December Last night it finally rained copiously so today I spread (dried) cow's dung. This I have to import from the Netherlands. What do I find doing this job?: Muscari macrocarpum IN FLOWER! Fortunately it flowers for at least two months so when I come back in January it will still be there. It is easy to sow by the way though the seeds are few. I shall have my garden covered in them in a few years time! There was a bumblebee at work as well.

16th February 2007 Spring is here again so the crocuses are in flower. Crocus malyii  on the left and on the right Crocus tommasinianus 'Claret'. Malyii is not a very easy one to find. It was also much smaller a year later. 
Two yellow ones: left, nicely decorated in fine brown lines on the outside is Crocus fuscotinctus to the right of that the better known 'Golden Bunch'. It is a adorable small, copiously flowering crocus.
Contrary to what happens in the Netherlands: here  yellow crocuses are not eaten by the birds..
19th March: A South African beauty. I ordered this one together with Oxalis massonorum from Cape Seed not knowing what to expect. (The oxalis finally flowered but turned out to be white, to my dismay) Geissorhiza  radians is its name. I have to check its spelling every time.
In S. Africa it flowers in September, so it has adapted nicely to the seasons of the Northern hemisphere. Jim, who sells the S. African bulbs, told me to put the pot in full sun and in a dish  of water during its flowering period. The same goes for the oxalis.

This little tulip is called Lady Jane and I like her a lot; Her stamens are wine red. Lovely. We'll see how she will behave in future. 

(Smaller in 2008)
From: Vreeken.
This is something I don't understand at all. Fresias in the worst possible spot, to wit a slope of gravel which burns in summer, where they have hardly any water not to mention any fertilizer: they flower like no other freesias in the garden. 

The books speak of regular gifts of water, temperatures over 5° C and and feeding once in a fortnight as soon as the leaves appear. But ...

2008 After a dry, dry summer these freesias have completely disappeared!

17th April Now that there has been good rain and the temperatures have risen drastically spring suddenly came. Everywhere things in flower: cistus, coronilla, aphyllanthes, all at the same time.

The beauty in the photo is Gladiolus alatus. It is from South Africa. Just like geissorhiza it has been outside all winter, in a pot. There was not much frost though and whatever there was was not very bad, no more than -4.
Small bulbs may be ordered on the internet. Look under CAPESEED. With a creditcard and a lot of patience (sometimes things do not go as wanted , e.g. the wrong bulbs); on the other hand it is not very expensive.

28th April Flowers where-ever you look. Quite beautiful: cistus albus, a native bush, combines prettily with Gladiolus communis. The latter are soon finished, but self seed

You come across all kinds of flowers when taking a walk on the wild side: F.l.t.r.: not very many: Muscari neglectum;  rather common along stretches of vineyards: Ornithogalum umbellatum and where you find houses you may find  Allium neapolitanum.  The allium is quite a good cut flower. it will last some some 2 weeks.

In one our neighbours garden plenty of Ipheion uniflorum.  In Dutch they are called little old ladies. 

Photos: end of March
9th May When I first came to live here I planted several small flowered hippeastrum in the garden. Sometimes one comes into flower, but whatever is the reason to get it going ...? I think this one is called 'Veneto'. According to my big, green book it also flowered in 2003 Quite a nice one, isn't it? 

Lovely little thing and very easy: Anomatheca laxa. In the garden it does not do very well, but it grows really fast in a pot. Sowing is easy. They do grow among the paving though!
3 juni I never wrote about this beauty before, in spite of the fact that it is such a lovely species to use in these parts: Tritteleia 'Corinna'. It has been here for a few years already, but now suddenly I have many more as the seedlings have matured! I see them elsewhere as well! I bought them from Rita and to have so many you have to be rich or patient!
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