Timeless Beauty of Bulbs
Planted in fall, bulbs serve sa fragrant and colorful senties of spring. Thanks to that simple equation, they are perennial garden treasures. In 1845, a New York man wrote to his brothers in Boston, thanking them for a parcel they`d sent. Among the presents of jewelry, pocketbooks, and a knife, the package contained “more precious than all an assortment of Bulbs”.
The nine bulbs in that mailing certainly were worthy of thanks, as they represented pure luxury. Two centuries after the commercial bulb industry began, spring-flowering bulbs still were costly, but in great demand.
Originating in the mediterranian region, Afghanistan, and Turkey, bulbs captured the fancy of Europeans and the British in the early 1600s. “Tulipomania” swept through Holland in the 1630s, prompting an enduring love affair between the Dutch and their spring-flowering bulbs.
The Dutch, in fact, cornered the market on the development and export of bulbs. During colonial times, newspaper ads announched shipments to America, prodding bulb growers to buy their treasures at the local general store. At that time, when the Dutch bulb industry wasn`t as developed and it took a long time to ship across the ocean, buying two dozen bulbs cost a lot of money. The price, in fact, equaled 20 pounds of coffee or five pairs of men`s shoes.
Although the cost prohibited mass plantings except by wealthy landowners, bulbs gradually made their way across the country. On the frontiers, where they remained pioneers of civilized gardens back home, bulbs mingled with other hardy plants in simple gardens.
The victorian had other plans. Gardeners during this flamboyant era created bold patterns of color by cutting beds in their lawns in the shapes of circles and stars, then filling them with tulips and hyacinths. By the end of the 19th century, they planted ribbon beds, positioning bulbs in rows to produce bands of color.
In the early 1900s, Americans embraced nostalgia, rejecting formal beds in favor of old-fashioned grandmother`s gardens. Daffodils benefited from this revival, gaining favor for the first time as naturalized plants in woodland settings.
Throughout bulbs history, gardeners have appreciated them as reminders of the beauty to come after a long, hard winter. Heirloom bulbs tend to have subtler colors and smaller blossoms than their modern counterparts, but they also are more fragrant. Old-fashioned hyacinths and jonquils were especially valued for their scent.
Today, many heirloom varieties have been lost, but a selection still is available through specialty catalogs. Brilliant and sweetly scented harbingers of spring, bulbs connect today`s gardeners to the past through their timeless beauty.
