Time for spring bulbs
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October 16, 2021
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It’s time to think about spring bulbs. If you buy tulip bulbs, place them in the refrigerator (not the freezer!) and wait until November to plant them. Tulips need pre-cooling in order to produce their flowers.
Have you heard about “tulipomania”? Michael Pollan describes this craze for tulips that occurred in Holland in 1634. One bulb of the Semper Augustus tulip sold for ten thousand Dutch guilders! That was enough to buy a house in Amsterdam at the time.
Tulips have a wide range of colors, shape and structure. The Dutch especially valued curled and twisted petals with pointed tips. Garden catalogs show the diversity available, from the “Pink Diamond,” a soft pink with a classic shape, to the “Black Parrot” and “Fire Wings,” with flamboyant colors and frilly petals.
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Katie Martin