Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden by Jacqueline van der Kloet.
photography by Jacqueline van der Kloet, with exceptions.
Portland: Timber Press, 2024. $35.00 Amazon $20.99
You know those bulbs we plant in the fall, waiting for them to come up flowers in the spring? I think of them as buried treasures. They offer so much in return for their modest cost and our effort, not least the faith and expectation that winter will end. But there's a catch. The bulbs that bloom in the spring are dormant by the time summer comes. So there's a hole in your garden wherever the tulips or daffodils or hyacinths or whatever had earlier been in bloom.
Public gardens are those places where people visit for a brief, transient moment, admire a vignette, then depart. The New York Botanical Gardens has staff (and School of Professional Horticulture students) to do the site preparation and planting of bulbs in the fall. Then, after the flowers wither, they will be dug and discarded, replaced with annuals.
The average homeowner has neither the staff nor the budget for this type of grand estate gardening. We're looking for something on a more modest scale that allows us to incorporate bulbs without such major disruptions. Also, our gardens are observed day after day, as plants develop, flower, then fade away while something else takes their place. And someone has written a book that suggests just how to do so. It is Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden, by Jacqueline van der Kloet.
Her book begins with a brief history of tulips and of lilies. Next, a discussion of what is a bulb. Gardeners tend to use the term as a catchall, for any and all of those plants with a lumpy underground storage unit. Botanists distinguish between bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes. Gardeners should pay attention too. And van der Kloet explains the differences and why it matters.
Next, a few pages suggesting bulbs for beginners, each listing-page paired with a matching page of 4 to 9 pictures. Obviously, you'll need the bulbs. But how to get them into the ground? With tools, two that will be familiar to a gardener and a couple of specialty ones.
Next, get to the garden and its bulbs? Not just yet. Choosing bulbs should not be a random selection. Think about color. Perhaps an all-white, moonlight garden, or a garden with warm colors, or another one with cool colors. Options and possibilities, complete with suggestions for bulbs to choose. Pictures, of course. And basic generalized sample designs with a few bulbs. Easy bulbs for the beginner. Other bulbs for the enthusiast ranging from bulbs to plant in the fall which will flower in the spring to those which are planted in the spring that will flower in the summer.
What's your preference - a traditional design, with specific bulbs planted in distinct blocks, or, a nonchalant garden where the bulbs are planted as a meadow, in an intermingled tapestry. Choose bulbs and perennials that perform simultaneously, such as snowdrops and hellebores in February.
Find as many places to plant bulbs as may be found. They might be familiar bulbs such as tulips
tucked among shrubs in a rustic German country garden van der Kloet designed earlier this century.
And then there are some bulbs such as Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy', perhaps less well known
which still in bud, not yet fully in flower, is striking, especially in combination with silvery globe thistle.
There is a section, "Designing with Bulbs Around the World" presenting gardens and their bulbs with which van der Kloet has participated, from Keukenhof and the 2022 Floriade in the Netherlands to other gardens in Germany, the United Kingdom, United States, and Japan. There are one or a few full page pictures of each garden. I could wish for more, offering details rather than overall scenics or a "portrait" of a few stems of scilla or viridiflora tulips.
In conclusion there's something more than an index, call it an appendix, offering "My Favourites." Each bulb is presented with a small image and a paragraph of basic information. Too bad printing is so expensive, or they could have bound in some blank pages for readers to add their own favorites. For this book is sure to widen the diversity of bulbs to plant in your garden.
Addendum
Her work with bulbs in the natural garden is not something new for Jacqueline van der Kloet. It was - let me count - 15 years ago that I met her at the New York Botanical Gardens for the ceremonial bulb planting of the seasonal borders adjacent to the conservatory. She chose the bulbs, corms, and tubers and their placement. Herbaceous perennials were selected and incorporated in the two borders by Piet Oudolf. An important event, with the two garden designers here from the Netherlands, also Princess Beatrix and her husband. Planting Bulbs in the Four Season Border.
A diversity of bulbs scattered about, Colchicums and several different little bulbs. A few tulips end up near Echinacea. Next year. Winter has come and gone. It is April. Narcissus and Muscari add color. The seasons turn to summer. Dahlias add their bounty of flowers, pairing with everything from ornamental grasses to succulent Sedums.
Bulbs in the four-season garden. Growing bulbs in the natural garden. As it was then back then. And as her book now explains how to do this.
Long time NARGS member Judy Glattstein has always enjoyed growing what she refers to as buried treasures, those plants with lumpy underground structures that erupt into flowers. No longer an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden where she taught a required course about bulbs for School of Professional Horticulture students and curated a Buried Treasures exhibit, to keep herself somewhat occupied she writes BelleWood Gardens, a blog where this review first appeared. You are welcome to visit: http://www.bellewood-gardens.com