From Kitchen Garden to Keukenhof

How many bulbs will bloom at Keukenhof this year?  Over 7 million bulbs in 32 hectares (79 acres) of flowers.  This is the largest flower garden on the planet - a festival that has been expanding since 1949 as a promotion for tulip growers.  In the 15th century it was used for hunting and gathering herbs for the castle's kitchen.  Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden. Today there are 30 full-time gardeners who work year-round.  Can you imagine what needs to happen in the autumn?  It takes 3 months to plant it. What do they do with the flowers that have bloomed?  They dig out the bulbs and most are used as food for livestock, a reminder that tulips are edible. This year's theme is Romance in Flowers.  The rose show - and the red rose - will be showcased in a grand style.  How do you make 32 hectares of flowers interesting?  The park is divided into theme gardens -  Historical Garden, Inspirational Garden, Cupid's Garden, Holiday Romance Garden, Rob's Oriental Romance, Rebel Garden, Delft Blue Garden, Hipster Garden, Tea Garden and Health Garden.  There are flower shows inside pavilions throughout the Festival (March 22 - May 13).  Each one is based on a specific flower -  Anthurium, Orchid, Lisianthus, Freesia, Gerbera...and on. What about the sightseeing flight over Keukenhof and neighbouring flower bulb growing fields?  Flying at 300 meters, it would be a wonderful view of the Dutch landscape and those abstract squares of floral colour.  With all the canals, one can travel through the bulb fields around Keukenhof in an electrically-propelled whisper boat.  The Facebook Page has photographs - a mini-vacation for us.  I really enjoyed the cheeseweb.eu site coverage. It showed coverage over the years. Here's one of my favourite tulip images.

Our Surprise Tulips

We drove on the picturesque Sulphur Springs Drive in Pelham a few years ago during the Porsche fun run day.  The road was closed due to flooding for two consecutive years.  So it wasn't a surprise to see the report that it was washed out Wednesday night.  Another year of missing this beautiful drive.  I keep seeing the headline on the red-and-white Canada 150 tulips that are blooming orange in some gardens. Home Hardware the major retailer that sold the bulbs in the fall says that they are "taking each individual case very seriously."  I find this most entertaining.  The CTV news story gets 'to the bottom' of the issue - a packaging problem not a hybridization problem.  They quoted Mark Cullen, our gardening guru here in Canada.  The article concludes: “In the Netherlands, orange is their national colour,” Davis said. “Maybe this is their way of getting in on Canada 150.” We're looking at the spring version of the renovated RBG Rock Garden. I am looking forward to seeing it when the water fills the meandering pools and the fountains  are in action.

New Gardens at RBG

These Royal Botanical Gardens pictures were taken  before the garden was closed for extensive renovations.   The magic of this garden is its sunken setting.  Like Butchart, one comes to the garden at the elevated entrance so surveys the whole garden.  Then one enters down into its magical paths where flowers, benches, and collections of plants draw one's attention.  RBG's strength was its spring time plantings.  It treated the garden as a canvas to be painted using tulips. I'm going to check it out today.  I'll see a completely new 'garden' in this special setting - a  new look, new design,  new plantings, new building, new everything.  Stay tuned. The RBG arboretum is nearby and has an extensive collection of spring flowering trees.  I hope you have a chance to visit by the weekend.  While our spring is glorious, it seems to be quite short.

Niagara Spring

The Niagara orchards are in blossom.  Just last week only a few pink flowers were showing - a little pink glow on the trees.  Fruit tree blossoms open with the warm temperatures and yesterday had both warm and cold.  As our temperatures rise, our spirits soar with the beautiful colours and fragrance this time of year.

Impressions of Spring

Impressions of Spring

Thinking of Spring The spring garden isn't showing yet.  I would like to see the snow drops that were poking out before Christmas and the heather that was in full bud, ready to bloom too. So I did a tulip study yesterday using French Kiss textures to create the different backgrounds for this pretty tulip.

Painting with Tulips

Spring Tulips

Royal Botanical Gardens Rock Garden These pictures are from 2013 and are taken in the RBG rock garden. The rock garden was closed in spring 2014 for the big renovation. I looked in before Christmas and there was still a lot of heavy work in progress.  The opening is planned for this spring, but doesn't have a date yet. One can look at the RBG Site and see a map with the major features highlighted. The RBG rock garden has always showcased Tulips. Tulips are one of the great spring flowers for us - their colours range from soft and delicate to fiery and intense.  The shiny petals seem to make the colours stand out even more.  They are a perfect flower for the landscape painter.  The RBG mastery of colour combinations is enchanting.  But the result is so fleeting. In only a short time and the canvas changes and the artist starts anew.

Force a Smile

Tulip Time - Force A Smile

I hope today's tulip pictures give you a little cheer and a smile in the Winter. I expect they are forced into bloom in greenhouses rather than grown in fields. It would seem more efficient. But are the greenhouses here in Niagara or are they in Holland? I realized that I know where the vegetables are grown, but I don't know where all the flowers are grown.  Alstromeria, Gerberas and Orchids are grown here in Niagara. These tulips were in a bouquet I received last week. Is it possible that my complete bouquet (tulips, chrysanthemums, alstromeria and ferns) has come from a source such as Westbrook? Westbrook is a familiar name in Niagara with over 1.5 million square feet of greenhouse space in Grimsby (and Dorval, Quebec). I guess it is time to check out our floral trade in Niagara.

Royal Botanical Gardens - A Rock Garden Splendour

The Royal Botanical Gardens Rock Garden display in the spring is wonderful.  Tulips grace the gardens in contrasting and complimentary colours.  Their scent is in the air along with the sound of water babbling in the stream.  The gardens are located in Burlington Ontario - here are a few selections from the visit last week.