Keukenhof is the famous show garden for the international bulb industry. Seven million bulbs go into the ground to provide a twelve week long extravagant display of this important export product from the Netherlands. I was there on the opening day. The weather has been mild and bulbs are early this year. I was interested …
Use alliums to bridge the June gap between the flowers of spring and the summer flowering perennials. Even when your garden borders are bright with colour in June from Euphorbias, Geums and Iris there is still a role for alliums. Their round pompom flower heads are larger than tennis balls and contrast boldly both in …
The Ottoman Empire, in a similar way to Holland, had a fanatical obsession with tulips. Needle-shaped flowers were prized of which Tulipa acuminata is an example. This wild species tulip flowers later than most. Its flower petals drawn out into long fine points are yellow splashed with orange and red marks. In one way the …
Snowdrops highlight this small perennial meadow planting this winter’s end in my Amsterdam trial garden. Following cold wintery nights there is much still to be enjoyed in a garden dominated by perennials. Galanthophiles are gardeners obsessed with snowdrops. I adore these spritely early bulbs but the collector’s bug has never caught me. I have trialled …
This tulip,Tulipa sprengeri, is the exception to the rule. It will grow and flower well in semi-shade unlike any other and when it does it brings the tulip season to an end. This year it is early in my Amsterdam garden, but often it will not be in flower until June. Its colour is strong …
The Amsterdam Tulip Museum is a welcome resource for anyone interested in tulips and who happens to be visiting the capital of the Netherlands. Now they have started to share their knowledge and information online at https://amsterdamtulipmuseumonline.com My earlier post gave some impression of the quality of the museum and its shop and to support their …
Now is the time to make a list of the spring flowering bulbs and especially the tulips you need to order for planting in the autumn. With the bulbs in flower in front of you – there is no better moment to make a plan; if you don’t, many of your inspired ideas will be forgotten when …
I have just released a new eBook on tulips. Without tulips many perennial meadow and naturalistic planting schemes would be very dull at the beginning of spring. I mix them into my borders, dropping them into any spaces I find between the perennials. In spring they flower amidst the emerging foliage and sometimes the flowers …
As you can see bulbs, and in particular tulips, are amongst my favourite flowers. However, six years ago I hit a big problem; mice and voles started eating the bulbs – every single one of them. In that year I had carefully planted over eight hundred tulip bulbs individually amongst the garden’s perennials! I resorted …
Naturalistic planting and especially the prairie planting variant can look very flat and green in spring. Often these schemes are filled with perennials that flower in summer and look wonderful with ornamental grasses, but in spring they are green. Red is the complementary colour to green and tulips are one of the ways to introduce …