Tulipa sylvestris is often found growing in woodland, but although it thrives, spreading rapidly by underground stolons, it rarely flowers well in such situations. I have heard stories of it being found growing in old, overgrown churchyards, but never flowering. When these grounds were cleared and dug over, the disturbance would stimulate the tulips to flower the following year creating wide drifts of gleaming yellow to everybody’s surprise; a reward for all the effort.

It grows some 15 inches tall with bold, clear yellow flowers. Its vigour no doubt coming from the fact that it is a tetraploid species. With double the normal number of chromosomes it is clearly a natural hybrid of some sort and botanists can trace its lineage back across Europe and Norther Africa to the centre of tulip origins in Asia via various other similar species.

As a garden plant, Tulipa sylvestris is best grown in full sun and will clearly not mind if the ground is occasionally disturbed through digging. I recently photographed a fine display in a woodland setting, but suspect that the plants had only recently been planted there, as over time their flowering in such settings declines rapidly.

I was so impressed with what I saw last week that I have decided to start adding it to some of my trial perennial meadows to assess its long term performance. The principle of the perennial meadow is that once planted, it should not need regular disturbance, but on the other hand I will be planting in open sunny situations which hopefully will keep this dainty tulip happy. If not, I will have to do a bit a digging from time to time.

Species tulips make fine additions to perennial meadows as they are tough and do not die out in the way that is typical of many of the popular hybrid cultivars. I regularly use Tulipa turkistanica which is especially early flowering. It, like T. sylvestris, is quick to spread by both seed and stolons and no doubt the two together would create a long sequence of flower – creamy white and then clear yellow.  Yes, its time to start planning this autumn’s bulb order.

The Dutch landscape is in part manmade and has been intensively managed for centuries. The native flora, such as it was, became threatened here far earlier than in other countries and this was recognised by naturalists in the last century who began to campaign for its conservation.

Jac. P. Thijsse (1865 – 1945) was a leader in the conservation movement of The Netherlands. He wrote many books and popularised the study of native plants and animals in their habitats inspiring children through his illustrated books and school posters.

One of his hobbyhorses was the establishment of a series of public parks to bring the native flora within reach of the general public. These, so-called, heemparks were not conservation areas, but rather seen as educational and socially desirable.

The city of Amstelveen, situated hard against the boundary of dominant Amsterdam, seized upon this as an idea to stimulate its economy and create an attractive living and working environment. It was also a pragmatic choice, as the wet acid soil of the region did not favour conventional planting practices. The city has six such parks and ten more, so-called, native green objects which are small gardens and green corridors that together have succeeded in making Amstelveen a highly desirable green suburb to live in even though it is situated right under the flightpath of Schiphol Airport.

The jewel in Amstelveen’s crown is the park it created dedicated to the name of Jac. P. Thysse. The park covers an area of 5.3 hectares and was created in three phases between 1940 and 1972. Typically Dutch, it follows a pragmatic design, being squeezed into leftover land surrounding one of the city’s villa districts. Long and narrow in form, its many drainage ditches follow the U shaped form of the park and are frequently crossed by simple low bridges. Different habitats have been created by varying the elevations on the site and by manipulating light levels between areas of woodland and openings. At its heart is a large lake with marsh and woodland edge planting schemes.

No attempt is made here to recreate wild plant communities, but rather by using an interplay of massing and mixing, the different plant species are emphasised and promoted. Coming from England where wild gardening has a bad name for creating a tangled mess of vegetation – good for wildlife but not attractive or accessible – the highly styalised approach to wild plant gardening practiced in Amstelveen appears as a stunning revelation.

Students of landscape architecture come to Amstelveen from all over the world to study its public parks and green corridors. Those of us living nearby too easily take them for granted. From what I read of Oehme and Van Sweden’s designs for the new Native Plant Garden in New York I suspect that Amstelveen’s lead has been built upon. The American native flora is so varied and exciting that the potential is almost overwhelming to contemplate. I cannot wait to visit New York and see the results.

Some more impressions from last week’s visit:

In 2005 Amsterdam was named as The Elm City of Europe as it has more than 75,000 elm trees, many some 80 to 100 years old, growing along the sides of its canals and throughout the city’s parks. In fact, Amsterdam is one of the most densely wooded cities in the world with some 400,000 trees which can be compared with Paris with just 95,000 and even London with only 500,000.

When the elm trees release their seeds they fill the sky and clothe the ground for a couple of weeks every spring. Looking out my window I can see that the seed fall is just about ready to begin. It may be late this year, but it’s going to be heavy.

This year Amsterdam is celebrating 400 years since the start of building its famous canal system which defines the city centre. The Springsnow festival is just one such cultural events being held: attend lectures, make a cycle tour along the elm route, look at art inspired by and made from elm seeds or read poetry on the theme. It all seems to offer a welcome start to a summer of celebration.

Dutch elm disease is an unfortunate name for the disease that wiped out 25 million elm trees in Britain in the second half of the last century and thereby changing the face of the country forever. The disease did not come from Holland but was identified by research scientists here in 1921. Initially the disease strain was mild, but unfortunately in 1967 an import from North America of Ulmus thomasii introduced a far more virulent form – the rest is history.

By careful management and replacing losses with disease resistant hybrids it is possible to retain these majastic trees. Amsterdam has a full time tree specialist caring for its elm trees which guarantees that its spring snow is not going to be a onetime event but something to look forward to every year. Here is a short video by Bram van Alphen to let you see what it is all about.

Well, finally, this week it happened, my garden leaped forward. Perennials are jumping out of the ground, bulbs bursting into flower and I have managed to get the last of my new collection of shrubs into the ground. Red foliage is something I am currently interested in as can be seen here with one of the new Acer palmatum cultivars I have planted.

It was only a week ago that I could not wait any longer and made a visit to Holland’s bulb flower show at the Keukenhof near Amsterdam. I was too early. The crocus had finished and been removed, only hyacinths and daffodils were in flower – and these were surrounded by wide drifts of green tulip foliage with hardly a flower to be seen.

I will be returning next week when I know that everything will be in flower at once. In my book on tulips I took a great deal of trouble to organise the different cultivars and species into early, mid-season and late flowerers – nature has made a mockery of this this time around.

I have been carrying out an experiment for two years in my two trial gardens here in Amsterdam to see how many tulips return reliably. There have been no real surprises; the species or varieties close to their wild origins come back reliably for some years. All decline in my garden as I surround them with tall growing perennials that often rob them of the sunshine they need to feed their new bulbs for the following year. But the one group that one never expects to return reliably, but which does, is the Lily-flowered cultivars. Their character is so refined that one expects them to fade away quickly, but many return here year after year.

One perennial plant to remind you about again is white flowered Pachyphragma. Here it is providing the setting for a few ‘Pink Impression’ tulips. This useful ground covering plant has spread itself by seeding in this corner of my garden over some eight years from the original plant I was given. Read more about it here in an earlier post from my Top Perennials section.

This is a corner planted with a mixed perennial scheme using epimediums, astilbe and euphorbia which all offer exciting spring foliage. I have just added a plant of Berberis thunbergii ‘Orange Rocket’ on the corner to increase the drama. Even without any spring bulbs this is an interesting scheme that has a very long season of interest and as such is an example of the mixing system I am currently using in my perennial meadow schemes. If you would like to engage with me and develop such schemes for yourself then my eBooks or better still my online lecture course at MyGardenSchool is perhaps where you could begin.

No doubt I will be able to post some pictures of the firework-like display at the Keukenhof following my return visit next week. Regrettably, they will be mostly schemes of massed bulbs but excluding perennials, which is a real pity and such a missed opportunity in my opinion.

Enthusiastic designers repeatedly make reference to the structural and textural qualities perennials can bring to your garden planting schemes, but in truth perennials are weak architecturally and to be effective within a garden’s design they need to be placed within a firm framework.

Traditionally, herbaceous borders were created as discrete features; often backed by tall hedges and viewed as a tableau with their plants arranged in serried ranks. The new style of planting which flows out to fill wide garden spaces into which we can enter, run the danger of becoming loose and formless, filled with a tangle of vegetation.

Large scale naturalistic planting schemes have become popular in many European and North American public parks. Such schemes filling the horizon with wide drifts of mixed perennials are, however, always created within a wider, structured landscape.

Most gardens are much smaller than public parks, yet contemporary gardeners are keen to emulate the high profile, naturalistic schemes that are being widely acclaimed in the media. However, no matter what the scale, perennial plantings need to be given structure and focus in order to be effective.

On a large scale designers have the opportunity to use an interplay of massing and mixing, coupled with repetition to give their schemes organisation and form. Paths cutting through such schemes together with boundary walls and woody plantings are frequently used to organise such designs.

The course I teach at MyGardenSchool entitled “New Perennial Planting for Today’s Gardens” is intended to resolve the contradictions that seem to arise when naturalistic schemes are to be implemented into domestic scale settings. Their restricted space simple does not allow the use of repeating masses of individual species for dramatic effect.

To begin with, I show how by using a restricted pallet of perennials it is possible to develop a strong visual impact and allow this to be repeated across the planting area. Careful selection of bold theme plants is the key to this step, with plants being used that are perfectly suited to the available growing conditions and which together are capable of forming a stable community to form a matrix of vegetation with a long season of garden interest.

Identifying suitable theme plants for my perennial meadow planting schemes is not easy which is why I created a series of eBooks giving specific examples in order to get designers started and inspire less experienced gardeners.

Theme plants alone are not enough to make a satisfactory perennial meadow as although they make a bold block of vegetation, if on approaching it all that is revealed is the five or so perennials making it up then it will become quickly boring. By adding what I call “complementary plants” to my schemes I aim to achieve three things. Firstly, these plants can extend the season of interest, for example, when spring flowering bulbs are added to a scheme featuring many late season flowering perennials. Secondly, the complementary plants can be added to discrete areas of the whole planting area to create points of focus and contrast; perhaps by being used nearer to a path or adjacent to a sitting area. Finally, the complementary plants can add a counter theme to a design, a contrasting colour and form, or be used to introduce formal patterns that link with other design elements within the surrounding garden.

Theme plants and complementary plants work together to create perennial meadows that are visually interesting for as long a season as possible and which are worth viewing from afar and which become more interesting when the are approached and viewed from nearby.

Within the scale of an average sized garden, perennial meadows need to be organised into clearly defined planting areas that are surrounded by a network of paths. This allows the planting areas to be entered into, but also is an essential step in placing them firmly within the garden landscape.

Where space allows, a series of planting areas can be created and this opens up more opportunities for introducing variation and visual impact. I often place contrasting schemes into adjacent areas and so introduce variations of height, colour and texture. Ornamental grasses are especially useful in this context with perhaps a block planting of a single species standing across the path form a scheme in which it or a similar cultivar of the same grass is being used as a theme plant.

These are just some of the tricks that can be used to adapt the drama and excitement of public naturalistic planting schemes for use in small domestic garden settings.

Perennial meadows offer a new way of introducing naturalistic planting into cutting-edge gardens. If you haven’t tried mixing perennials to create this new form of planting for yourself perhaps it is now time to give it a go.

I have spent more money on planting tulips in my own garden than on any other plants there; for the price of a tree that will be with you for a lifetime the box of tulips that arrives in the autumn is likely to exhaust itself the following spring., just like a firework display they can be over in a flash.

The way tulips are used in most gardens fails to take advantage of their various qualities and yet they continue to be used to add sporadic splashes of colour to our spring gardens following the same approach we see being taken in public parks.

In truth, some sensitive gardeners use tulips with great creative flair mixing them into their borders in harmonious or maybe contrasting associations with other spring flowering bulbs, perennials and shrubs. But here again we see the same tried and tested combinations being used; the dark tones of Queen of Night are now the epitome of good taste in gardens as far apart as Washington DC, London and Stockholm.

Did you know that there are fifteen classes of tulips which group them in ways that reflect their flowering times, their flower shapes and their heritage? Single Early, Finged, Double Late and Kaufmanniana groups are examples which can start to lead us into finding different uses for the more than 6000 forms currently in cultivation. And yet how often do gardeners end up buying a sack of yellow Triumph Group tulips whilst doing the weekly shopping and confirm the belief that all tulips fail to regrow after their first spring and should be treated like annual flowers?

Triumph Group tulips were deliberately created by Dutch bulb grows by crossing early and late flowering cultivars to find medium height flowers that would make sturdy plants for mass bedding in public parks and also be ideal for growing as cut flowers. They have been successful in both respects and today represent 45% of the total tulip bulb production in the Netherlands, but don’t expect them to become permanent members of your garden’s borders.

Other groups of tulips, however, are much closer to their wild ancestors and make far more durable garden plants; these are the Botanical Tulips including the early flowering Kaufmanniana Group, the so-called waterlily tulips, Fosteriana, Greigii and the many other random species gathered together in the Miscellaneous Group. Here is a world to explore for the true gardener filled with jewel -like flowers very far removed from the battalions of Darwinhybrid Group tulips to be found filling the battle fields of your local park.

Don’t plant tulips in small groups of ten from the sacks of bulbs bought on impulse, but instead look at the group as a whole and combine them in ways that exploit their different qualities. To start with, if you only plant one type it will only be in flower in the garden for three weeks if you are lucky. Bring together tulips from the early, mid-season and late flowering groups and suddenly you have a scheme that is effective for six to eight weeks at the time of the year when your garden needs a kick start.

Queen of Night tulips are mid to late season flowers and lend themselves to combinations with early spring flowering perennials and shrubs, but four weeks earlier there is far less in flower in the garden and this is where a drift of a low-growing species such as Tulipa praestans ‘Fusilir’ comes into its own. This virorous tulip is no more than 8 inches tall, but it bears between four and six vivid orange flowers per bulb that open over an extended season. This early in the season it will not hidden by its neighbours when spread through a mixed border and should be used in quantity to fill your garden picture; fresh and vivid in the early spring sunshine.

Glorious, glowing colour is what what the tulip can offer us and we should find ways of creating mixtures of these to make full use of the wide range available. Sometimes I will mix many different types of a single colour, say yellows, purples or oranges, to create a community that will fill a border planted with yellow flowering perennials such as euphorbias.

More complex mixtures are possible with contrasting flower forms and colours, but this requires far more care. A new trend in the Netherlands being promoted by the bulb growers is to offer customers ready made mixtures. Some are very carefully considered and some in my opinion are too subtle for their own good, but others look more like the season’s left-overs thrown together.

One dubious trend is the inclusion of daffodils in these mixtures. Some of the mixtures using small flowered narcissus cultivars are quite pretty, but the character of the larger daffodils with tall aristocratic tulips look simply ridiculous. Taste may play a role here, but don’t forget that tulips originate from open steppa landscapes and daffodils are from the woodland edge which is why they do not really make natural neighbours.

With the spring being very late in northern europe this year, our tulip season is only just about to start, but what better time to look at as many types you can find and think carefully how best to combine them, either with themselves or with other types of plants.

So, my message is to look at the wider picture when planting them, be creative and don’t simply copy what you see everywhere else. Unfortunately, your bank manager may not be too happy with this timely advice.

This weekend the weather is finally changing and no doubt spring will start like the finale of a firework show – so perhaps its time to make a visit to the bulb fields of the Netherlands.

Indeed, 2013 is a very good time to visit Holland as a lot is happening. King Willem-Alexander will be crowned on 30 April in Amsterdam. The city is celebrating 400 years since the start of building its network of major canals and this month the Rijks Museum reopens after ten years of rebuilding. Although the Van Gogh Museum is now closed for rebuilding works, all Amsterdam’s other famous museums are finally open after a decade of refurbishments including the Stedelijk Museum for modern art, the Maritime Museum and the architectural jewel of the new film museum – Het Eye.

But as gardeners you will want to see gardens and plants and since its spring this means tulips. Here is a short summary of where to go:

Keukenhof is the national exhibition garden for the Dutch bulb industry and is compulsory for any visitors in April and early May. In design terms it is very conventional. Attempts to invite designer in to bring the displays up to date have not really worked well, but there is nowhere else in the world where you will see such a diverse display of bulbs grown to perfection in a splendid landscape park setting.

Hortus Bulborum is less than an hours drive from Amsterdam and is a living collection of old and historic tulip varieties. There is no design here, just a field with a living gene pool for the breeders of new varieties to dip into. Here you can see the ancient virus infected forms that were cause of the famous tulip mania in the seventeenth century. The setting in a small village with the church in the background is delightful, but do ring in advance and arrange for a guide to be available to show you around the collection as this will make it a far more worthwhile visit.

At the botanic garden in Amsterdam – the Hortus Botanicus – there is a special exhibition this year celebrating the tulip and in particular the wild species. I have yet to visit as I am sure the cold weather has delayed things, but this is another must do.

Additionally, in the centre of the city a number of parks and private gardens have been planted up with tulips as part of the city’s 400 year celebrations. The climax is on 26 and 27 April when the gardens behind the canal houses are open to the public.

Start your tour of Amsterdam’s tulip route at the Amsterdam Tulip Museum or get information at the tourist information office (VVV).

The Amsterdam Tulip Museum is well worth a visit. Here you can learn about tulips, buy souvenirs and order bulbs of a very high quality. I wrote about all they have to offer last year – here.

Finally its time for tulips.

I have just spend a month following Andy McIndoe’s course on shrubs at MyGardenSchool, the online intensive training for keen gardeners and landscape professionals.

As one of the tutors myself, I was interested to see how it worked in one of my colleague’s classrooms, but also I have been puzzling with shrubs in my designs for some time and this course was hopefully a place where I could enter into a debate with a leading expert on the subject.

Each week for a month I was able to download a new video lesson, an illustrated transcript of the lesson and an assignment to be completed during the following week.

Four lessons of around half an hour do not give space to cover the subject of shrubs in great detail, but because of this there was only time to focus on the most important aspects. The first two lessons looked in general terms at the role of shrubs in a garden and how best to use them together with practical aspects of planting and pruning. Lesson Three looked at foliage shrubs as the foundation of good planting and finally, Lesson Four went in search of shrubs with a long season of interest as opposed to those that have just one moment of glory.

When I was first approached to create a course for MyGardenSchool it was quite an honour to be included among their list of recognised expert tutors all of whom have had books published on their particular specialisms. However, I did wonder if I personnaly would ever find following such a course worthwhile – wouldn’t it simply be easier to buy a few books on the subject and read them in my spare time?

Well, having now gone through the process myself the conclusion is a definite no.

Winter is a time for study, writing and reading for me and over these past four weeks I have not only engaged with Andy McIndoe and the other classroom members, but I have steadily worked through my shelf of books on shrubs. As designers it is too easy to fall back on tried and tested plants that we know we can trust. Now, I feel my knowledge has grown and has been brought right up to date.

The weekly assignments are not meant to test your progress, but rather serve as a basis for discussion in the virtual classroom. For example, the first week we were required to take three photographs of shrubs in a garden setting and discuss their use and possible companions to strengthen their role in the design. Week two we all argued about pruning which is a subject that leaves everyone confused; logic and practice often seem diametrically opposed. And in weeks three and four we started designing with shrubs and looking for good companions. As someone who works mainly with perennials this was the most challenging part of the course – but it made me think really hard about why and how I should be using shrubs in my designs.

Now that I know what it is like to be a student with MyGardenSchool and appreciate the benefits it can bring, I would advise anyone joining a class to take full advantage of the virtual classroom and to complete the weekly assignments as it is these that help you learn. I have had some students on my own courses who have simple watched the videos, but for them, I suspect, the benefits were limited.

My own courses at the school cover the ideas on planting design I have been writing about both here on this web site and in my various books and magazine articles over many years, and some people will get all they need by simply reading these carefully. For most of us, however, it is only by actually engaging with problems and asking questions that we really make progress as designers and plants-people.

My own courses at MyGardenSchool are:

New Perennial Planting For Today’s Gardens

and

Planting Design With Grasses

My recent posts about this course and the use of shrubs in perennial meadows can be found via this link.

UPDATE:

This post has recently appeared on the MyGardenSchool web blog as it was seen as very useful for new students to read how much importance I attached to the activity within the virtual classroom.

Training on offer has, this month, been extended with the arrival of Noel Kingsbury as one of the tutors with his “Planting Design with Perennials” course that together with the courses by John Brooks’ on garden design and also Hilary Thomas on planting design form a comprehensive portfolio for serious study.

Tea time yesterday Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands spoke to the Dutch nation and announced her abdication in favour of her son . Beatrix has reigned for 33 years. The coronation of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima will take place in Amsterdam on April 30, 2013.

The words Holland and Tulips are inseparable and Dutch breeders never miss the chance to name their latest finds after any newly born member of their royal family. I have never seen or heard of a “Beatrix” tulip but searching in the official register of names I find Princess Beatrix dated 1939. That must be her, she was born on 31 January 1938 and is 75 years old this week, which, apparently, is one of the reasons for her announcement. Notice the English spelling of this tulip – good marketing – but presumably this Triumph Group tulip was destined for the cut flower trade and not our gardens.

Other princesses have served us gardeners better, above all Prinses Irene and Prinses Margriet in spite of their Dutch spelling.

There was a fine orange tulip named after Beatrix’s husband ‘Prins Claus’ which I dutifully photographed in the Keukenhof gardens on more than one occasion, but, again, it was never offered for sale to gardeners. However, her son, the current crown prince, has turned out to be a real star in my garden.

The Triumph tulip, ‘Prins Willem-Alexander’ was planted at the Keukenhof garden by the prince himself in 2003 where it first flowered the following spring. It originates from the crossing of two famous cultivars, the Single Early, ‘Prince of Austria’ (‘Prins van Oostenrijk’) and the old Breeder tulip, the Single Late Group tulip, ‘Dillenburg’. These legendary varieties are only to be seen in historic collections, but with their genes revived in the pedigree of ‘Prins Willem-Alexander’ we have one of the best orange tulips of all time with the exceptional characteristic of a strong delicious scent.

What makes ‘Prins Willem-Alexander’ such a good garden tulip is that its colour is pure radiant orange, but not garish in any way, it is only 50cm. tall which makes a sturdy, weather resistant, mid-season flowering plant, but above all else, it stays in flower for a full three weeks long.

The year I grew it in pots was following an attach from voles the previous spring which wiped out the entire display. Since then I have been spared and tulips have returned to my garden borders.

Tulip Prins Willem-Alexander

The man is due to change from a prince to a king at the end of April, but his namesake should return to our gardens for many years to come as a young, vigorous prince.

Snow has brought an extra dimension to the small balcony next to my kitchen door; a balcony I never use, with an ugly metal fence and a view over buildings which are due for demolition.

This spring when plans were finalised for the demolition of my neighbour’s property, I decided an evergreen screen would be a good idea between the kitchen and the inevitable chaos that would undoubtedly fill the view for the next couple of years.

Once I  had accepted that the metal railing is part of my urban existence, I realised that metal trash cans (We call them dust bins in England and trash cans in the Netherlands!) would make the perfect containers to grow a collection of screening, evergreen shrubs.

Throughout the summer the shrubs have grown well and when eventually the bulldozers move in I think I will have a pretty effective screen in place.

For relief I also planted some deciduous shrubs behind the evergreens directly below the kitchen window. The summer was dreary and wet and these small Acer palmatum trees were very happy; how well they will fare here, in the centre of Amsterdam, during a more typical hot summer, has yet to be seen.

The arrival of snow two weeks ago gave the new installation an unexpected lift as the tin-can-containers seemed to glitter like silver jewellery against their grubby background.

Even with regular watering and feeding these shrubs will never acheive their full potential, but so far they are proving to be a fresh and welcome relief. Will my new neighbours also appreciate the view from their side of the fence? The dog will certainly make sure they stay there.