From my childhood when we would visit Holland, Michigan, to see the spring bulb display to trips to the Keuekenhof Park in the Netherlands (one of the world’s largest flower gardens), I have always been fascinated by flowering bulbs. There is something magical in these swollen roots that can be transported and set into the ground to put forth foliage and flowers in the months ahead. Bulbs remind me of seeds for how they contain everything they need to germinate and grow, but even more exciting for being more foolproof than seeds under the right conditions.
Over the years, how I garden has evolved; the drifts and bouquets of flowering bulbs I used to plant seem no longer to have a place in my garden. For this reason, I am grateful to have Jacqueline van der Kloet’s latest book, “Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden.” Many years back, I had the pleasure of visiting her garden in the Netherlands and of touring the Keuekenhof with her where she was experimenting with planting bulbs. The Keukenhof traditionally features large drifts planted each year by a coalition of Dutch bulb growers who provide millions of bulbs to fill the garden; the effect feels like the Land of Oz, with bold plantings of color fields of tulips, grape hyacinths, frittilaria, and daffodils.
Jacqueline, who has worked on numerous projects with Dutch designer Piet Oudulf, had a different approach, in keeping with the naturalistic gardens that Piet was known for. She advocated for using bulbs more casually and expressively – with single daffodils and tulips coming up through beds of geranium and grasses, giving them a wild natural feel. And while she does not always explicitly state why she has a fondness for certain varieties, it seems to me that she selects varieties based on their having a sense of the wild about them – allowing them to feel relaxed and at home in more informal garden spaces.
Some of the best advice in the book is based on this planting style. She advocates for planting crocus in the lawn, selecting varieties that will flower and whose foliage will replenish their bulbs before the lawn needs to be mown in mid-May. And she extends the bloom period by selecting varieties that bloom successively, allowing the lawn to be in bloom for more than a month. Additionally, she recommends early-blooming miniature daffodils such as ‘Jack Snipe’ and ‘Tete-a-Tete’ that can naturalize more easily in the lawn, maturing and fading well before the mower comes out of hibernation in the spring. For more meadowy sites that are cut later in the season—or not at all—there are camassia and allium that can hold their own in a wilder setting.
Gardeners tend to think that all spring bulbs require the same conditions, both while in bloom and sitting dormant during the rest of the season, but here we learn that daffodils and snowdrops may prefer a moist, shady site while in bloom and that they should be located to have such conditions. But Jacqueline helps us understand what they need while dormant, with daffodils being able to handle a little more summer moisture, whereas the snowdrops may prefer a drier site. Sun-loving tulips prefer dry summer soil for the most part—and giving bulbs what they want helps to contribute to their longevity in the garden.
Her book is filled with combinations of grasses and perennials that work both as textural combinations, but also as combinations the cede center stage to one another successively. And while this may seem like an odd moment in the season to be thinking about spring bulbs, I am hoping to get my bulb order in before some of my favorites, like the wild Tulipa praestens ‘Shogun’ are still available. Even here, Jacqueline has good advice when perusing catalogs – plant more of one variety versus dozens of types; it will keep the garden feeling cohesive – and more varieties can be added in the years to come.
One other thing Jacqueline taught me, and it is a lesson well learned, is that bulbs require forethought in acquiring them, advance labor in planting them, and joy in watching them come up in the garden after all of the work has been done.
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A gardener grows through observation, experimentation, and learning from the failures, triumphs, and hard work of oneself and others. In this sense, all gardeners are self-taught, while at the same time intrinsically connected to a tradition and a community that finds satisfaction through working the soil and sharing their experiences with one another. This column explores those relationships and how we learn about the world around us from plants and our fellow gardeners.
