Planting a blaze of colour
Gardeners at Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens are busy dressing the renowned space in the bright hues of spring.
FOR nature lovers like me, winter seems a bleak season, as autumn’s blaze of red and gold disappears to make way for the cold slumber ahead. But for the gardeners at the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland, this is the busy start of their gardening calendar, as they prepare this spectacular garden for its opening on March 23.
From early October, 35 gardeners have been on their knees, planting seven million bulbs that will explode into colour throughout Keukenhof ’s eight-week opening. The process takes two months, and 9,500 man-hours.
Keukenhof is popular with Malaysians: more than 25,000 of us visit annually, and the number is rising fast. Located in Lisse, the bulb region of Holland, close to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and the delightful little medieval city of Haarlem, it is easy for independent travellers to get to.
From its humble start as the 15th century kitchen garden of Countess Jacoba van Beieren, Keukenhof expanded into this 32ha parkland in 1857. Landscape architect Jan David Zocher was entrusted with its creation, mimicking English country gardens to incorporate winding paths, slopes, lush green lawns, little streams, a lake and woodland into his design.
In 1949 a group of bulb exporters got permission to hold a permanent exhibition of spring bulbs on the grounds. Its success led the gardens to be opened to the public in 1950. Today, visitor numbers have spiralled to over a million each season. On a busy day 1,000 coaches and 4,500 cars are parked on the grounds.
Ensuring continuous colour
What never fails to intrigue me is how the gardeners manage to plant seven million bulbs of different varieties and colours and never accidentally mix them up. I have scoured the grounds each time I visit to try to find an odd-coloured flower popping its head up among the row upon row of tulips, daffodils, hyacinth or crocuses. And how do they ensure there every flower bed is in colour throughout the season?
Head gardener Johan Braam took me through the process. Garden designer Martin Elling creates the designs based on the types of bulbs the 100 royal suppliers provide. Blueprints of each garden with codes of the type of bulb to be planted are given to the gardeners who then map out outlines of the planting areas with bamboo stakes.
From September the bulbs start trickling in, and Braam has to ensure the right bulbs are delivered in the right quantities.
From early October, the bulbs are laid out and the gardeners start the arduous task of planting them.
To ensure there is continuous colour throughout the season, Braams explained, the “lasagne” method of planting is employed, with three layers of bulbs planted: the late flowering at the bottom and earliest at the top. The earliest spring flowers are crocuses, followed by hyacinth, early flowering tulips, daffodils and late-flowering tulips.
The bulbs are all supplied free; to be selected display your bulbs in this international showcase for Holland’s floriculture is reward enough.
I have been visiting the gardens for the last three years and am always amazed at the new tulip cultivars or hybrids I keep seeing each year. I talk to Keukenhof ’s guide, Patricia Jelgerhuis, who turns out to be a font of knowledge about everything from the history of the tulips to the botanical facts about the flower so closely associated with Holland.
“New cultivars are created by cross pollination,” explains Jelgerhuis. “It takes at least six years for the first flower to appear. The final colour and other features of the plant have to be just right, hence it can take 20 years for a