Deadline Looming

If you haven't ordered any spring-blooming bulbs - the time is now and if you haven't ordered enough - it's not too late. Thank God, because September's end has arrived much too quickly. A garden can really never have enough spring flowers; but of course, when the orders add up and you have to produce a credit card --- well, that's another story and when it is time to dig the holes (or the trenches) and the weather has turned chill --- it seems like you have ordered an insurmountable number - but press on! Come next spring when everything looks breathtaking but paltry, you will say, But why did I only get 10 of these and 20 of those....???It is easy to go whole hog withVan Engelen - one of my very favorite suppliers and should be yours too. The wholesale trick is that you have to buy in some quantity...but believe me, it is not so much and there is no garden into which you cannot tuck 100 Fritillaria meleagris, 50 English bluebells (though the Spanish bluebell - Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Excelsior' - is a little bigger and blooms later) and an assortment of a few hundred tulips - at least.

Fritillaria meleagris are happy in sun or shade and100 cost only $16.50... Not everyone knows that the venerated John Scheepers and Van Engelen are one and the same, though it's no secret given they both distribute their fine Dutch bulbs from an adorable address at 23 Tulip Drive in Connecticut. Ordering on-line is by far the easiest because the well-working web site adds everything up for you and you can see how much you are spending as you go along. (This is good or bad, depending on your spending attitude) Anyway, making the decisions about which kinds and colors to buy I find much easier with the catalogues in hand. The Scheepers book has great pictures with smaller minimums and slightly higher prices, while the Van Engelen catalogue is nothing but words. They sell exactly the same great things and there are fabulous collections too: all-white, deer-proof, pastel tulips etc; but my favorite this season is The Magical River Special.
Comprised of the elegant Narcissus Thalia (without question, my favorite daffodil) - you get 200 of these white-winged beauties to spread among 500 classic blue Muscari hyacinths. Having seen this simple blue and white combination in Holland - I promise you it is most breathtaking. And just think, every year you can add more bulbs and make you enchanting river flow further...Here is Muscari in its blue splendor popping up among variegated Solomon's Seal as they innocently and gracefully burst forth from the earth - little did we know that the deer would soon devour e
.very single one... heartbreaking