Tips from the Grounds keeper of the Keukenhof Gardens

LISSE, The Netherlands
No people on earth love flower bulbs more than the Dutch. In the Netherlands — where bulbs were first commercially produced more than 400 years ago — bulbs are not only an important industry but a national passion. It seems appropriate that this tiny country should be home to the world's largest garden devoted to spring-flowering bulbs.

Each spring, the famous Keukenhof garden in Lisse features more than six million tulips, daffodils, crocuses — and just about any hardy bulb you can think of — on 70 acres of expertly sculpted park land.

Visitors from the world over are treated to flowing rivers of brilliant blue grape hyacinths, seas of tulips of every imaginable hue, vast bed plantings, naturalized stands of narcissi in woodland or along streams, waterfall rock gardens dotted with delicate species of miniature daffodils and of course — an authentic windmill.

Set amid — and often offering stunning views of — the famous Dutch bulb fields in full bloom, the effect of the Keukenhof is awe-inspiring and joyful.
On the one hand, the Keukenhof can definitely be seen as "bulb overkill." Its spectacular effect is, to some measure, achieved by sheer weight of numbers.

On another level, however, the success of the Keukenhof plantings is based on a gardener's skill and an artist's eye for detail. For despite a riot of colors and a fervent desire to display every type of bulb, this singular garden offers a wide variety of arresting vistas that range from the serene and delicate to the kicky and incandescent.

Easy Keukenhof Tips for Home Gardeners.
Many of the techniques used at Keukenhof are actually quite simple and easily adaptable to home gardens. The reason is that bulbs are among the easiest of flowers to grow.

According to Henk Koster, chief garden architect of the Keukenhof, "The element most home gardeners neglect is design. You must plant with an eye to how the flowers will look when they bloom."

Koster says the basic design elements of a professional-looking bulb display are simple: group bulbs together to achieve masses of color plant low-growing bulbs, such as grape hyacinths, in front of higher-growing bulbs, such as tulips.

Plan your plantings in a painterly way, grouping pleasing flower colors together, draw the eye with spacing and color.

Create your plantings with an eye to how they will look from both far away and nearby

"Color is really the key," says Koster. "Bulbs are color. If you put masses of color together, you achieve a more stunning effect.

"What makes a planting impressive from a distance might be sharp contrasts of color, or patterns of contrasting or complementary colors. Up close, the shape and textures of the flowers and leaves become important. Here you might consider using the more varied flower types, like lily-flowered tulips or double-flowering daffodils or bulbs that will have interesting patterns on their leaves."

Koster reminds that the height the plant will reach is an important consideration. "Always plant low in front of high. That's a rule. But it is also intriguing to plant a row of low growing plants in-between two higher-growing groups. This adds a wonderful sense of dimension to the planting."

Flowers in Bloom from February to June
Koster points out that proper timing can stretch the spring bloom periodfrom February through June.

"The very first bulbs to come up are the tiny white Snowdrops in early February. These will bloom even with snow on the ground."

By coordinating the blooming times and plant heights (always listed on the bulb package) you can create successive waves of color in your garden, from Snowdrops through iris, February through June.

"It's like dance choreography. You plan blooming so that everything happens when you want it to, in sequence."

"It's also important to consider the blooming times of flowering shrubs and other perennials as well," Koster says. "You might for example, plant pale violet tulips at the base of a pink-flowering cherry tree. You want all the colors in the garden to complement each other."

Beyond the Basic
For those who want their display to go beyond the basic, Koster has some equally easy tips for more ambitious plantings:

Color blocking. Mass displays of one color set against mass displays of another. Red and yellow are traditional choices. Other favorites include red and pink, orange and purple and two-tones with a complementary color.

Geometric Plantings. Use masses of bulbs grouped together by color to create geometric shapes in a bed or even right in the lawn for a look that is especially captivating if viewed from an elevated terrace or deck.

Double-Decker Blooming. In fall plant bulbs in layers underground, with larger bulbs (tulips, daffodils, etc.) eight inches deep and smaller bulbs (anemone blanda, grape hyacinths, crocus) five inches deep. In spring this creates a double-decker effect, with a lush carpet of one color, such as ground-hugging daisy-like anemone blanda blooming beneath, and another color, such as tall ruby-red tulips, above.

Constant Containers. Plant bulbs in interesting containers to provide colorful accents to drives, sidewalks and terraces. The bulbs may be planted directly in the containers in the fall, or they may be planted in the garden in plastic trays and placed in the containers come spring. By planning and planting several different trays with flowers that have different blooming times, faded flowers in containers can be replaced with fresh and the colorful effect prolonged.

Inter planting. Mix bulb plantings in with summer-flowering shrubs and perennials to liven up otherwise drab areas in spring. Bulbs can also be interplanted in such a way that the summer perennials just coming into leaf will mask the dying foliage of the spring bulbs. Interplanting annuals is another way to mask the withering foliage of those bulbs you want to leave in your garden to flower next spring.

Free-standing Flower Islands. Isolated flower "displays" in interesting shapes (circular, lozenge, kidney bean, etc.) are effective positioned in the middle of a lawn, alongside a pond or brook or elsewhere. Anchor these with taller plants, such as fritillaria or tulips for a dramatic effect.

The bottom line with bulbs, says Henk Koster, is that they have so few technical requirements (almost everything you need to know is on the label) that they leave you free to let your creativity run wild, as you choose from the hundreds of colors and thousands of varieties and flower types available.

Speaking of thousands of varieties, what is it like planting six million flower bulbs each fall?

"It's a lot of work, unbelievable," laughs Koster, "but we are used to it."