Autumn bulbs, inside and out

By: Richard Wilford - 16/09/2011

A bulb is an adaptation to survive long periods of drought. Tubers, corms and rhizomes perform a similar function, storing water and nutrients underground, and waiting for the drought to break so they can grow and flower. Seasonal droughts are typical of the Mediterranean regions of southern Europe and North Africa, as well as parts of California, Chile, South Africa and SW Australia. In the garden these autumn bulbs, corms and tubers provide a boost to the flowering season late in the year.
 

Cyclamen graecum on the Rock Garden

Cyclamen can be seen in many parts of Kew, the most common being Cyclamen hederifolium, but on the Rock Garden you can find the less hardy C. greacum, which comes from Greece and Turkey. It does well in a sunny, south-facing position, where it can make the most of the autumn sunshine. Even less hardy, but still surviving outside in the most sheltered spots at Kew, is the North African C. africanum. For another African species you will have to go inside the Davies Alpine House, where you will see several pots of C. rohlfsianum, a species endemic to northern Libya and not hardy enough to grow in the open.
 

Left, Cyclamen africanum on the Rock Garden, and right, C. rohlfsianum in the Alpine House

 
Back outside on the Rock Garden, look out for the fantastic magenta-pink flowers of the South African Gladiolus carmineus. This plant comes from Western Cape in South Africa, an area that has a Mediterranean-type climate and is home to a huge range of bulbous plants in the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of the World's biodiversity hotspots.
 

South African Gladiolus carmineus on the Rock Garden

 Also from South Africa is the genus Nerine. These bulbs are mostly just emerging outside at Kew but in the shelter of the Alpine House, the delicate blooms of Nerine filamentosa are open. This species differs from the other plants mentioned here because it is a summer grower, appearing in the summer rainfall region of Eastern Cape, although the flowers bloom at the end of its growing season, in autumn. In a couple of weeks the more robust Nerine bowdenii will be flowering outside in the gardens. 
 

Nerine filamentosa flowering in the Davies Alpine House

Another plant that is flowering earlier inside the Alpine House than outside on the Rock Garden is Sternbergia lutea. On the Rock Garden, the blooms of this Mediterranean bulb are just opening but in the Alpine House they have been open for a couple of weeks. The impressive, bright-yellow, goblet-shaped flowers emerging from their large terracotta pots, make a real impact on the glasshouse benches.
 

Sternbergia lutea in the Davies Alpine House 

There are plenty more bulbs on the way. Over the next few weeks the autumn flowering species of Crocus will be blooming inside and out, brightly coloured Oxalis will appear, and in a couple of months the giant squill, Scilla madeirensis will make a dramatic return to the Alpine House. 

- Richard -

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