The leaves are falling, time to plant flower bulbs
I would guess that a lot of my readers have already started planting their flower bulbs, but as we sold quite a lot of them this year, I want to make sure everyone remembers to do it. If you have yet to find the motivation, or the time, to start gardening, feel free to see this as your sign to start today!
To be honest with you all: I am also talking to myself here. I have been busy, and not a single flower bulb has entered the ground around my house.
But as the title says, the leaves have started falling from the trees. That is a sign Mother Nature is giving you so you won’t be too late planting your Tulips. There is still time to plan a beautiful garden for next spring, and if you are still looking for some last additions to your own assortment, I have a few varieties I would like to shine a spotlight on.
There are two reasons here. The first one is that this is one of the most reliable options in our entire assortment, and I do not say that lightly. The second reason is more or less why they are as trustworthy as they are: they have been around for a long time.
Earlier this year, I wrote about visiting Kazakhstan with my friends John and Johanna Huiberts. We wanted to see Tulips in the wild, and John and Johanna, who are masters of the craft of growing biological flower bulbs, were also there to do research on the soil. Kazakhstan was an ideal place for that, as there have been Tulips growing there since the beginning of time. That is very interesting, because here in The Netherlands, you cannot grow Tulips on the same piece of land year after year: the quality of the soil will go down, and the Tulips will easily catch diseases and other types of unwanted attention from micro-organisms. So how is it possible that in Kazakhstan, the soil did not have this problem? That is what John and Johanna want to find out. That knowledge could be very good for the environment: maybe we can learn something from the soil that would make the use of pesticides unnecessary. To look at the possibilities, we took samples of the soil in places with lots of Tulips. When we started to dig around the Greigii Tulips, we found that their bulbs were 30 to 35 centimeters deep: the first surprise!
And this wasn’t even nice, loose soil: no, this was the hard ground, we had to slash and chip away until we could find the bulb and its roots. John and I agreed right away that we would test this at home: planting the Tulips that deep and see what happens.
Anyway, to circle all the way back to the Big Ups: They are only one or two generations away from the wild Greigii Tulips in Kazakhstan. This type of Tulip is a Darwin Hybrid, with the blood of the Greigii Tulips streaming through its veins. Their reputation is great: They do much better than almost any other Tulip at coming back year after year after year. And now, we are going to try and see if they do even better if we plant them deeper.
Blushing Impression, one of the largest Tulips in our assortment.
Besides these Big Ups, there are more Tulips in our web shop that are a Darwin Hybrid and closely related to the Greigii Tulips. Those varieties are Akebono, American Dream, Blushing Impression, Chongming Love, Darwisnow, Daydream, Jade Maiden, Novi Sun, Robbedoes, Salmon Lalibela, and Spryng Break. If you are more of a mixture-person, you are in luck: The mixtures with these Tulips are Gentle Giants, Glow Motion, Hot Hot Hot, Tukano, and Wellspring. As you can tell, we have lots of Darwin Hybrids in our assortment, and that is with the very good reason that they are, like I said earlier, easy and extremely reliable.
The next Tulip I would like to call to the stage is Love Story. This is a Tulip I really want to see in my own garden. Last year, grower Jan Vink had given me a few of them in a big pot. I was looking forward to seeing them, but what do you think? Mice. Every last bulb was eaten. We rationed the cat food right away. Hopefully, this will be my year with Love Story, because she really is a stunner.
Pistache is another one that goes straight into my own front yard. Not too big, not too small, this Tulip is kind of no-nonsense, but if you ask me, the colours are absolutely extraordinary.
A few of the ones I wanted to show you have been sold out already, but I will take that as a good sign.
I also want to try the sylvestris. I have seen her out in the wild a couple of times now, and I really hope to be able to find a spot around the house where she is happy enough to come back for a couple of years. I would guess she likes a spot that remains kind of dry during the summer. Sylvestris is Latin for ‘from the forest’ or ‘grows in the forest,’ and during the summer, the trees usually keep forest grounds dry. It could also mean she likes shade, but I think that The Netherlands doesn’t exactly have intense enough daylight to disturb any flower. If I find out what her preferences are, you’ll be the first to know.
I haven’t even given you five varieties, and I am already out of space. Maybe next week, but well, I might have something else to say then. Who knows. Anyway: If you are still looking for a perfect Tulip to complete your garden, there is still plenty of choice in our web shop.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
Carlos van der Veek
