Why early blooms matter more than ever

Walk round a British garden in late January and you will usually find that same dispiriting stretch of bare soil and brown stems. Nothing is flowering, nothing is feeding, and yet the wildlife is already awake. Mild, wet winters have shifted the goalposts: queen buff-tailed bumblebees are now recorded foraging on mild days in December and January, honeybees break cluster as soon as the temperature nudges past 10°C, and hoverflies and solitary bees emerge on the first warm afternoon. What they all need is nectar and pollen, and there is precious little of it about.

That is where bulbs earn their keep. A handful of well-chosen species will keep the larder stocked from the first week of January right through to April, and they do it in a way that costs you almost nothing after planting. Snowdrops, crocus and daffodils are not just cheerful; they are genuinely valuable wildlife plants, and in a milder British winter, that value is growing year on year.

Six bulbs worth planting this autumn

You do not need dozens of varieties. A small, well-chosen palette does more for pollinators than a scattered collection of novelties.

• Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) — the earliest reliable nectar and pollen, often out by early January. Single-flowered forms are far more useful than the frilly doubles, which often have little or no nectar to offer. They naturalise beautifully in grass beneath deciduous trees.
• Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) — a low, buttercup-yellow charmer that opens its petals in sunshine and closes them against rain. Excellent for a shady spot under shrubs, and superb for early bees.
• Crocus — Crocus tommasinianus is the best naturaliser and the least bothered by squirrels, seeding itself about with a will. Crocus vernus types are bigger and bolder in the border. Both are pollen-rich.
• Daffodils (Narcissus) — stick to simple, single-flowered sorts with short cups and open faces. The native Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the Tenby daffodil and old garden varieties such as 'Peeping Tom' are far more accessible to pollinators than heavy double forms.
• Grape hyacinth (Muscari) — bridges the gap into April, when bees are properly active and hungry.
• Snake's head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) — gorgeous in damp meadow grass or a heavy soil border, and a late-spring nectar source as the season gathers pace.

How and where to plant them

Bulbs are forgiving, but they repay a little care. The rule of thumb is to plant at three times the bulb's own height: roughly 8cm deep for snowdrops and crocus, 10–15cm for daffodils and fritillaries. Space them about two bulb-widths apart if you want them to bulk up quickly.

Drainage matters more than anything else. Heavy clay holds water and rots bulbs, so fork in plenty of garden compost or grit before planting, or plant on a slight ridge. If your soil is really sticky, a raised bed or a deep terracotta pot filled with a gritty, peat-free compost is a perfectly good answer.

Light is the secret to planting under trees. Early bulbs come up, flower and die back before the canopy closes overhead, so the ground beneath a deciduous tree or hedge is prime territory. Avoid evergreen shade, where the light never arrives.

If squirrels are a nuisance, lay a sheet of chicken wire just below the soil surface after planting, or mulch with coarse gravel. Planting deeper helps too.

Plant in drifts, and plan for succession

Bulbs always look better in drifts than in solitary dots. Take a handful and let them fall, then plant them where they land — the randomness reads as natural, while a straight line reads as a municipal roundabout.

Think in waves rather than a single moment:

• January: snowdrops and winter aconite
• February: the first crocus, more snowdrops
• March: crocus at full tilt, early daffodils, scillas
• April: daffodils, grape hyacinth, fritillaries

If you are starting from scratch, buy a mixed bag of species crocus and a few named snowdrops, and add to it each autumn. Most bulbs are planted between September and November, though snowdrops are best moved and planted "in the green" in late winter or early spring, just after flowering, when they settle in far more readily than dry bulbs.

Looking after them year after year

The single most important thing after flowering is to leave the foliage alone. Those leaves are the solar panels that recharge the bulb for next year. Let them die back naturally for at least six weeks — no tying into knots, no strimming, no cutting back early because the border looks untidy. If you must hide them, plant them among later-emerging perennials such as hardy geraniums or hellebores, which will grow up and mask the yellowing leaves.

A light scattering of blood, fish and bone or a general bulb fertiliser in early spring helps them build strength. Every three or four years, lift congested clumps after the leaves have died back, split them and replant the largest bulbs. That single job will keep a drift going for decades.

Bulbs give you the one thing British gardens usually lack in the first months of the year: food. Put some in this autumn, in a drift, under a tree, and the bees will find them long before you do.