After Sunshine Comes Rain
Dear readers,
One of our favourite national ways to pass the time is the classic complaining about the weather. I also often hear the optimistic version of this week’s title, after rain comes sunshine, but after the summer we’ve had, we needed its inversion much, much more.
Whenever we have a lot of rain, I like to think that plants need water anyway, and now, Mother Nature is taking care of that before we even have to dig our garden hoses out of the shed. And another thing I always see as a result of more frequent rain when autumn comes closer: there are more mushrooms! Do mushrooms mean it is time to plant your flower bulbs? Not necessarily, but it is a nice sign of the changing seasons.
Just a little Tulip intermission: Tulip Anatolia fell into our lap this year. A grower had a few bulbs left over, and asked if we wanted them for the web shop. I agreed wholeheartedly: Anatolia is a beautiful, elegant Tulip that reminds me of those antique Turkish artworks of pointy Tulip flowers. Today, the Tulip isn’t that popular (or even common) in Turkey, but during the times of Sultan Suleiman they were very much in fashion. We don’t have a lot of these bulbs, so if they speak to you, I encourage you to decide quickly. I am also counting on my good friend Sjoerd, who runs the Amsterdam Tulip Museum, to want a few of these, because they look exactly like the historical images of Tulips the museum is full of.
But back to the approaching Autumn. Everyone always says to plant flower bulbs during fall, but that is quite a long period of time. There are official dates to seasons, but our common sense also tells us that autumn in Finland probably starts a little bit earlier than it does in the south of France. When the Finnish people have already dug up their thermal underwear, people in Bordeaux are still sitting outside with, well, their glasses of Bordeaux. So we like to tell people that it is time to plant flower bulbs when the trees start shedding their leaves. We have already received emails from people asking about the best time to plant their new bulbs. It is best to plant them when the soil isn’t too warm anymore. A slightly cooler soil encourages the flower bulbs to make roots, which is good for them. If they have to wait in the soil, already planted, for their environment to cool down, they just have more time to get sick (or eaten).
Over the next week, we will start getting orders from Northern countries ready. This means that after today, Sunday September 13, it is no longer possible to combine new orders with existing ones. If you want to order more bulbs, that is obviously possible, but it will be a completely new order with new shipping costs. So if you want to add Anatolia for example, this is the last day to do it without having to pay for a new shipment.
Planting flower bulbs is a few weeks away for most of us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start dreaming about your Spring garden yet :)
If you are looking forward to the beauty the upcoming spring is going to bring, I am right there with you. If there is more to order, don’t wait too long—even if you don’t mind paying for another shipment, I am always surprised to see just how quickly some varieties sell out.
I never like to rush people into buying more, but you know, the best candy is always the first to disappear :) But on the other hand, maybe you will be surprised by a new favourite that you would never have chosen if something else hadn’t been sold out… you never know!
Time to get back to work.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
