Don’t Bury Your Money in the Backyard, Plant Bulbs!

        In troubled times like these, flower bulbs are one of the smartest investments you can make. And what other luxury costs so little? For a few dollars you get months of anticipation, weeks of beauty, fragrance, and pride when they bloom, and – as long as you meet their simple needs – they multiply happily year after year. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the Fed knows what it’s doing, but we’re also hoping that you’re like us – and that nothing’s going to stop you from planting some very special bulbs this fall. (Sept. 2008)

Exclusive Freebie: Get a Hortus Bookmark When You Order Hortus Bulbs!

        To celebrate its 80th anniversary, the Hortus Bulborum has printed four snazzy bookmarks, each decorated with antique bulb illustrations, and they’ve given us 1000 of them to share with you. We’ll tuck one into every order we ship this fall that includes a bulb we get from the Hortus (while supplies last). If you see “from the Hortus” in the description of any bulb you’ve ordered – or will order – for delivery this fall, you’ll get a bookmark! (Aug. 2008)

An Unexpected Tote-Bag Testimonial

        Our brand-new Heirloom Bulbs Tote-Bags are getting rave reviews from some very demanding critics: our staff. Twenty-something Renee Hytinen, for example, found a couple of unorthodox uses for it on a recent weekend trip to Lake Michigan.
        First she filled it with ice and beer and lugged it down to the beach. That worked so well, she told us with excitement, that later on the ferry ride to Manitou Island when the waves got rough and she started feeling green at the gills, she kept it close at hand, confident that it would also make a leak-proof – and elegant – barf bag. (Jul. 2008)

Link of the Month: Historic Sewers

        We’re not kidding. Sewers are essential to modern life and critical to the health of our waterways, wildlife, and all of Nature. They can be pretty darn interesting, too – as we think you’ll agree once you take a look at garden writer Adam Levine’s website The History of Philadelphia’s Watersheds and Sewers at phillyH2o.org/index.htm.
        Adam is a smart, funny guy, an avid gardener, and an award-winning author. In 1998 he hired on as a part-time “historical consultant” for the Philadelphia Water Department, and soon he was hooked. Adam’s site is rich with historic photos and maps, compelling data, and plenty of laughs. The best place to start may be his article “Down Under!” which is subtitled “Tales from the city sewer system, or why I should have worn a raincoat.” Once you start, we bet you’ll read more, and before long you’ll have a whole new perspective on your own local watershed and sewers. It’s enlightening! (Feb. 2008)

        Here’s a cheery little treat from our friend Linda Beutler of Portland, Oregon, author of the fabulous Garden to Vase: Growing and Using Your Own Cut Flowers. She writes, “Some of us here have started a little horticultural singing group, The Goddess Flora Chorus and Dead-heading Society. I’m their principal lyricist, and I was very much thinking of Old House Gardens when I penned the following. (For maximum pleasure, sing it aloud to a friend!)”

“Catalog in Hand” (to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”), by Linda Beutler

Post man rings,
Are you listening?
In the box,
Paper’s glistening,
A beautiful sight,
On this autumn night,
Walking ’round with catalog in hand!

Gotta get
Bulbs for spring time,
Order now, it’ll save time,
My order is long,
Hope nothing goes wrong,
Walking ’round with catalog in hand!

On the internet there are more pictures,
But how to know the server is secure?
They all want my VISA information,
And I just want some tulips to endure!

Later on
I’ll perspire,
A hot flash, by the fire,
There’s buyer’s remorse,
And no room of course,
Walking ’round with catalog in hand,

In a meadow I could naturalize you.
Narcissus as far as I can see,
Lots of little crocus tantalize you,
But they don’t give those bulbs away for free . . .

If it snows
I’ll be knowing,
In the ground,
Bulbs are growing,
And it’ll be grand, a true wonderland,
Walking ’round with catalog in hand! (Dec. 2007)

Tour the Hortus Bulborum and Holland in April!

        Imagine hundreds of rare old tulip varieties blooming in a vast patchwork of color alongside a tiny medieval church. That’s the Hortus Bulborum, and in April you can be there as part of a special “Holland for Horticulturists” tour co-sponsored by the Hortus and Maryland’s Cylburn Arboretum. Spend eight days visiting Keukenhof, Palace Het Loo, the Boskoop nurseries, and more, for just $2500 per person, airfare included. For more info, contact our friend Jane.Baldwin@Cylburnassociation.org. (Nov. 2007)

Heirloom Tulip Wallpaper by Bradbury and Bradbury

        This Arts-and-Crafts wallpaper frieze in ochre, olive, and sienna would be gorgeous even if it didn’t feature tulips. See for yourself at the website of California’s famed Bradbury and Bradbury Art Wallpapers. While you’re there, you may find the perfect wallpaper for your Victorian parlor or 1950s rumpus room, too! (Sept. 2007)

Garden For Tradition

        The National Garden Bureau offers eight great reasons to try gardening, starting with this one which we, of course, loved:
        “Garden for Tradition — Old or New. Gardening has been part of the human culture for centuries. Not long ago most families still had a garden and relied on it to provide food for their family. Remember visiting Grandma’s house as a child and picking deliciously scented flower bouquets — or the thrill of pulling on green tops and being surprised with a carrot to eat right from the ground? Recreate some of those memories for you and your family to enjoy again.
        “If you’ve never tried to garden, start a new tradition. You don’t have to dig up the entire yard. Begin with a small container or border area for flowers. If you want vegetables, get some large pots or create a small garden area and fill with easy-to-grow lettuce, delicious tomatoes, or rambling cucumbers. Gardening is a wonderful activity for parents and grandparents to share with the younger generation while creating pleasant memories for the future.”
        For seven more reasons, click here. (Aug. 2007)

Save the Pollinators!

        Have you seen the beautiful new pollinator stamps? With intertwining images of four native flowers being pollinated by a bee, butterfly, hummingbird, and bat, they were released in June to celebrate the first annual Pollinator Week.
        To learn more about pollinator-friendly gardening, visit www.pollinator.org and www.nappc.org. Horticulture magazine encourages gardeners to support pollinators by “planting native plants and heirloom varieties” – and we completely agree! A few pollinator favorites in our gardens are ‘Cloth of Gold’ crocus and camassia for bees, and Canna indica and ‘Atom’ gladiolus for hummingbirds. Please tell us about yours! (Aug. 2007)

Sticker Shock in “Tulip City”

        We’ve worked hard to hold the line on prices, but with the euro at record levels, Dutch-grown bulbs are costing more throughout the US this fall. In Holland, Michigan, that’s an especially big problem.
        Founded by Dutch immigrants, Holland celebrates its heritage every spring with a week-long Tulip Time Festival that features six million tulips in bloom. (Yes, six million!) Every fall, to keep things looking their best, the city plants about 400,000 new bulbs. Last year the bulbs cost the city $55,000, but this year the lowest bid was more than 20% higher, a whopping $66,393. City council finally approved the purchase, but not before taking a couple of weeks to recover from sticker-shock. (Aug. 2007)

Bad News for Bulb Lovers: Euro at All-time High

        Once again we managed to hold the line and even reduce prices for many bulbs in this year’s catalog. Unfortunately, we also ended up raising more than we’d like, mainly for varieties grown in the Netherlands where the euro continues to soar. Not so many years ago the euro was worth about $.85, but as the Associated Press reported just last week, “The euro shot to an all-time high against the US dollar Tuesday, [reaching] $1.3738, its highest level since the 13-nation currency started trading in 1999.” (July 2007)

“Bud Burst” Wants Your Help Tracking Global Warming

        You can help scientists investigate global warming in your own backyard! Gardeners and other “citizen-scientists” are being recruited to note when native plants in their area — including many common garden flowers — first leaf out and bloom. The data will help scientists track the arrival of spring, which since 1955 is coming about six days earlier in the Northern Hemisphere. Several universities and federal agencies are participating, as are elementary and high school students across the country. To find out more, visit www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/. (April 2007)

Celebrating Linnaeus’s 300th Birthday

        This May 23, how about lifting a glass of dandelion wine and toasting the 300th birthday of Linnaeus? This great Swedish botanist created our system for classifying living things into species and larger groups and standardized Latin names into simple “binomials” such as Lilium auratum instead of names that were often dozens of words long. “His contribution to our passion for plant life should make a great party mandatory,” writes Jim Black in the excellent new MasterGardener magazine. And in case you’re hesitating, he adds dryly, “It’s unlikely any of us will make the Quadracentenary.” (April 2007)

David and Goliath in the Garden

        A recent report says that 70% of all lawn and garden sales are rung up by Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart. We shop the big-box stores, too, but imagine this: If that percentage ever reaches 100%, how will that affect your gardening?
        More than ever, thanks for spending some of your garden dollars with us! (Aug. 2006)

Heronwood’s Closing Prompts Tears, Laughter, Advice

        Sometimes a little laughter is the best medicine. Mary Higgins of Cambridge, MA, emailed us recently:
        “Heronswood is closing? That’s horrible! I should have suspected something was up when those pig dogs stopped producing the print catalogue this year. . . . Please don’t ever sell Old House Gardens to Wal-Mart or Haliburton.”
        Don’t worry, we won’t! But we do agree with this advice from Tony Avent: “What’s the lesson here? If you have a favorite nursery, patronize it. Are you one of those sitting there wishing you had sent in your Heronswood order earlier? Lesson learned: If you see a special plant at a mail-order nursery, don’t wait because tomorrow may be too late.” (June 2006)

Just in Time for Summer: Red Velvet (Lily) Cake Recipe

        Red Velvet is a wonderfully deep-colored lily, but I had always puzzled about its name because it didn’t match any red velvet I’d ever seen. [Our former office manager] Rachel set me straight when she pointed out that it’s the color of old-fashioned red velvet cake. To see for yourself, try the recipe from our friend Matt’s Grandma Opal. Topped with white frosting and blueberries, it’s the perfect treat for a Fourth of July picnic! (June 2006)

Farewell to Flora Ann Bynum

        Many of us who love historic gardens were broken-hearted when we learned of the death on March 17 of Flora Ann Bynum. One of the warmest, most genuine people you could ever hope to meet, Flora Ann was devoted to her family and a wide circle of friends in historic Old Salem, NC, as well as in the Southern Garden History Society and all across the country. She founded and worked tirelessly for decades leading the SGHS and landscape-preservation efforts in Old Salem. She had a special affection for Roman hyacinths, making herself the country’s leading expert on these all-but-lost Southern heirlooms, and her big, old-fashioned garden on Main Street became a local landmark. The garden history community has lost one of its brightest lights, the world has lost an amazing human being, and we have lost a good friend who we will miss forever. (March 2006)

Christopher Lloyd Now Gardening in Paradise

        Open-minded and fun-loving, Christopher Lloyd was one of my favorite gardeners. He had the vision and courage to champion plants like Wyoming cannas and Byzantine glads twenty years ago when most people were scorning them, and he never lost his child-like sense of wonder. To read a great tribute to him by our friend Ken Druse, visit kendruse.typepad.com/the_newsletters/2006/02/farewell_to_the.html. For a look at his inspiring gardens at Great Dixter, and to help support their preservation, visit greatdixter.co.uk/index.htm. (Feb. 2006)

Vandals Uproot Historic Iris at Renowned Presby Gardens

        Shocking news reached us in early August. In the words of Philip Read:
        “It’s the botanical equivalent of attempted murder. A swath of New Jersey’s nationally known Presby Memorial Iris Gardens has been ravaged, with some 150 plants uprooted and tossed about like weeds. . . . The plants in beds 26 and 29, two of the gardens’ oldest, were discovered Wednesday afternoon lying on the grass after being yanked out of the newly restored beds. Worse, the metal spikes identifying their heritage were tossed too. . . . An Iris Restoration Fund has been established and a $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the culprits.” (Sept. 2005)

Hurricane-Ravaged Historic Sites Need Our Help, Too

        The Gulf Coast is rich in history, and hundreds of historic buildings and gardens were devastated by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. To help, please join us in making a contribution to the Hurricane Relief Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. To learn more, click here. (Sept. 2005)

Diversity Diminishes As Big Growers Rely on Unskilled Labor

        Steve Vinisky of Cherry Creek Daffodils posted this message to Daffnet, the American Daffodil Society’s email discussion group:
        “One hundred years ago, over 400 named hyacinths existed. Today roughly 80 exist in the trade and of those, only 30 or so are available in tonnage. Crocus stocks, especially species, are being reduced severely as knowledgeable help to rogue the fields (weed out erroneous bulbs) is becoming a serious problem.
        “During a visit to Holland a couple of years ago, I asked my grower host friend why there were so many Russian Lada automobiles parked along many bulb fields. His embarrassed reply was that field help appears seasonally from all of the former Eastern Bloc countries as illegal farm labor which skirts the Dutch social welfare laws (and cost burden). Knowledgeable Dutch housewives were the traditional labor pool for hundreds of years. As in the USA, a farm wife in Holland today is probably employed outside of the home. Fewer cultivars makes it far easier for unskilled, casual laborers, to maintain plantings without being knowledgeable about what it is that is actually being grown.” (Nov. 2004)

Celebrate Our Aztec Tuberoses with Antique Chocolate

        The tuberose, our Spring-Planted Heirloom Bulb of the Year, is one of the Aztecs’ great gifts to the world. Chocolate is another. And now you can taste chocolate the way it was enjoyed back in the days of the Aztecs!
        A sign at Zingerman’s, our local, world-class deli, caught my eye: “Antique Chocolate.” I picked up a bar and read the label: “Xocoatl . . . was introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century, who had learned the process from the marvelous Meso-American people. Since 1880, the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto continues to make this chocolate with the same ingredients and methodology that was passed on from the ancient Aztec civilization.”
        I had never tasted chocolate like this before! Enraptured, I sampled another old-style chocolate from Oaxaca, Mexico. Zingerman’s description fits both well: “The texture is coarse, with little sugar crystals exploding in your mouth and a dark, subtle, cinnamon and smoke flavor.”
        For your own taste, visit our friends at zingermans.com and enter either Bonajuto or Oaxacan in their search box. Tell them we sent you, and enjoy! (April 2004)

Our Gift for You – A Spring Bouquet for Your Desktop

        Instead of a blank computer screen staring back at you all day, now you can enjoy spring every day with our very first Old House Gardens desktop background (it’s like a screen-saver that doesn’t move). Remember the luscious bouquet on the back cover of our catalog? Now you can download and install it as a background SO EASILY that even the most inexperienced computer-user can do it in seconds. Click here and enjoy! (Dec. 2003)

Plant a Little Hope

        Is there anything that makes the cold, dark days of winter speed by faster than knowing that you have some new bulbs tucked underground preparing for the miracle of spring? And couldn’t we all use a little extra hope and beauty these days? Plant bulbs, plant hope! (Sept. 2002)

Timeless Advice

        We’d like to second this advice from the September 1982 edition of The Mayflower magazine:
        “Try ordering your bulbs early this year. No home can afford to be without the refining influence of flowers.” (2000-01 catalog)

Why Save Old Bulbs?

        Carolyn Jabs offers one good answer to that question in her excellent The Heirloom Gardener (1984):
        “Each time we permit an old variety to become extinct, we sacrifice part of our heritage. Those who ask why we need more than a few varieties of beans or corn [or bulbs] might as well wonder why a library needs more than one book on a subject.” (2000-01 catalog)

Another Reason Why Modern Bulbs Often Disappoint Gardeners

        Don Egger writing in the 1998 Lily Yearbook of the North American Lily Society explains:
        “Before tissue culture . . . of lilies was common, new varieties had to be carefully propagated by scaling or . . . seed, [so] it took years to multiply commercial quantities . . . . During this time viruses and disease would take their toll . . . . Only the [toughest] of new varieties lasted long enough to be offered to the trade.
        “Tissue culture technology has changed that. New clones can be micro-propagated with such speed that clones are on the market before they can succumb to virus . . . . While providing us with a vast assortment of new varieties to grow, it has made it all too easy to produce vast numbers of lilies that are not well suited for the home garden due to their virus sensitivity . . . .
        “It’s obvious why the best varieties have been around for such a long time: they are inexpensive to propagate, and easy to grow, and virus tolerant. These old-timers have proven that they will survive for many years in the garden without pampering.” (2000-01 catalog)

For articles on more like this on other topics, please see our main Newsletter Archives page.