Teaching

But let's start with a housekeeping announcement. Today and tomorrow are the last days you can order Lilies from us.

First of all, thank you for the overwhelming number of orders, especially the ones followed by compliments about the good quality of the Lily bulbs. The quality was, and still is, very good this year. Beautiful, large, healthy, thick bulbs that will, I’m sure, bring a lot of beauty this coming summer. However, to get the best out of the Lily bulbs, it’s time to get them in the ground, so if you still want to plant some Lilies...Lilium Conca d'Or

If you’re unsure and don’t have much experience with garden lilies, I can recommend a few. Conca d'Or and Casa Blanca are two lilies that are very reliable. To be honest, now that I’m looking at the lilies still in stock on the Fluwel website, I’m surprised that these garden favorites are still available.Lilium Casa Blanca

Two extremely strong lilies that can come back for years and are also much less susceptible to the Lily beetle. If you think, "Lilies are nice, but maybe a bit too difficult for me," try the Casa Blanca or Conca d’Or. I would be surprised if they disappointed you.Lilium Roselily Anouska

For the more experienced gardener, I would recommend Roselily Anouska and Lilium auratum. I do need to mention that if you plant them in a large pot, there’s little that can go wrong with these lilies. The downside is that you’ll usually only enjoy them for one or two years. My experience is that lilies planted in pots can come back nearly just as beautiful, if not even more beautiful, in the second year. After that, in the third year, they tend to disappoint (at least in my experience). But those two years of enjoyment make them a real showstopper.Lilium auratum

Do what you will, the lilies that remain will find a spot in my garden to cut flowers from this summer, but I naturally prefer it if they’re proudly blooming in your garden. Now, it's time for a little lesson. No, I’m not going to teach you, we’re getting a lesson from children in the Northern Irish town of Omagh.Narcissus Brackenhurst

For decades, we've been wondering why gardening is so much more popular in the United Kingdom than on the mainland of Europe. This Northern Irish class with study bulbs is showing us the answer to this long-unanswered question. Start young. My colleague, daffodil breeder, and good friend Brian Duncan, also from Omagh, asks me every year if we have any extra daffodils to give to the local school. Actually, I’ve said that wrong—they have a small budget for bulbs and plants, but we, of course, give them with all our love. Looking closely at this photo, you can really see how much they enjoy it. Proud and happy with their achievement, they pose around their beautiful result. Of course, in the front, there’s that one student, looking like someone out of Mr. Bean, standing by the clock and wondering how much longer this will last 😊I always see this when I make a stop in England at Wisley Gardens. Often I’m there early, just before the garden opens, and I always see two, four, or six buses of schoolchildren arriving. All happy children... hooray, a school trip to the flowers and plants.

Okay, I’ve wandered off a bit, but no worries. This story actually reminds me of the lovely World Daffodil Tour last year. There, I met a very kind Belgian teacher who, at the school where she teaches, or rather in the entire village, is known as the "Flower Teacher." Sorry, Flower Teacher, I’ve forgotten your name, but I can still remember the conversation I had with you and your husband at the breakfast table as if it were yesterday. The enthusiasm with which you talked about introducing children to plants... just fantastic. Oh, how clumsy of me to forget your name. It’s so strange because if you were a daffodil, I’d still remember your name perfectly, but remembering people's names seems to be a challenge for me.Zantedeschia is also beautiful as a potted plant, this is the Zantedeschia Zazu

I’ve strayed again, but back to the point. Children really love all those plants, flowers, and seeds. Perhaps we could try a bit harder to introduce them to it from a young age. If they, like us, grow up with a little love for flowers, they won’t be worse off for it. Gardening, in my eyes, is one of the best hobbies, and apparently, it’s healthy too.Begonia bertinii

Begonias, like Dahlias, are very prolific flowering bulb plants, and we receive quite a few positive responses from our customers. However, when it comes to the numbers we ship, they aren’t exactly top sellers. Begonias are really worth trying—flowers all summer long.

Time to stop again, I’m heading outside. Life is beautiful when the sun is shining. Vlad had asked me to explain how to "top" the Dahlias you might be forcing, but I think it's still a week or two too early for that—I'll get to it later.

Next week, Vlad will write the newsletter. I’ll be in the USA, where I’ve been invited to the annual National Daffodil Convention in Reno, Nevada. Looking forward to seeing all the daffodils and my daffodil friends again.

Best regards,
Carlos van der Veek