hi, i am thinking of planting some galanthus in the grass in a park in the city of saint priest (near lyons, france, rather continental climate). - the location is a grassy area that is watered an average of 3 times a week from may to september. - the location is a moderately busy public park - we mow from the last week end of march till early nov - the park is on a hill. the objective is to have large colonies of galanthus that can be seen from the bottom of the hill - a very popular rare plant sale (3 to 5000 people /dau for 2 days) take place in the park on the last we of march. the bulbes leaves have to be mowed by that date Do you have any advice on what Galanthus to plant that would be best suited to these conditions? Can you think of other bulbs that would be suited to these conditions? i was thinking of Scilla tubergiana? thank your for your imput pierre crozat
None will be suited to your mowing schedule. Turf areas set aside for bulbs must have a period when they are not mown so the foliage of the bulbs can be allowed to develop and mature. One compromise is to have a middle or back section planted in bulbs, with the front and sides kept closely mown. This way you have both a display of bulbs and a tidy area at the front and sides, the shabby look of the unmown grass not coming to the front.
Well I would place some bets in favour of galanthus surviving those conditions, even if not 100%. They reproduce like crazy and become incredibly crowded masses of bulbs, so if you lose some bulbs every year this might not be such a bad thing. In addition, some might have seeded by the time you mow; I can't remember when the seedheads mature. Why not put in some trial clumps and see how they do before committing to a full implementation?
It sounds like they will be mowed before their foliage gets long and sets seeds. They may come back for awhile but will not thrive.
