The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
TULIPS ON TOUR
Brian looks forward to soaking up the sights on a trip around famous Dutch and Belgium gardens
In a year’s time I will be lucky enough to be joining the passengers of Emerald Cruises for an exclusive DC Thomson Travel river cruise – the Blooms of Holland and Belgium. This is a fantastic opportunity to see the Dutch masters at their best where, as part of the eight-day itinerary, we will visit the incredible Keukenhof Gardens celebrating millions of spring flowering bulbs. We’ll also visit Floriade 2022, the world’s fair of horticulture that only happens once every decade. At Keukenhof we will mostly see the tulip flower the Dutch are most famous for, but there will be a touch of familiarity too, as we stroll through the gardens which were laid out in 1857 and inspired by the English landscape style.
The gardens became famous when, in 1949, a group of leading bulb growers and exhibitors came up with a plan to use part of the 200-acre castle estate to showcase the spring flowering bulbs they were creating.
The tulip has captivated Dutch gardeners since the 1500s, so much so that during the “tulip-mania” craze of the 1620s and 1630s, bulbs became so expensive they were used as currency until the “tulip market” crashed.
In some cases, a tulip bulb could cost more than a house in Amsterdam.
Until recently, I was so absorbed with everything else in the garden during spring that I barely gave tulips a second glance. But I’m making up for it now, and thoroughly enjoying the many colours, shapes and styles that make up the world of the tulip. Peony types, single flowers, double flowers, fringed and parrot are just a few of the different groupings of tulips. These names alone set the imagination alight, without even knowing what they look like. And I can’t wait to see how the Keukenhof designers show off my favourite, the graceful and elegant lily-flowered grouping, whose flute-shaped flowers gradually arc backwards, somewhat similar to that of a lily flower.
I also find Rembrandt tulips intriguing. Originating back to the same time as the prolific painter, the flame-like streaks on the blooms actually come from a mosaic virus which was spread by aphids.
Over the years more than 3,000 cultivars of tulip bulbs have been created, but only healthy bulbs are allowed to be sold today.
The displays will also feature daffodils, fritillaria, hyacinth andscilla, all in stunning colour combinations laid out in patterns of waves, planted against a backdrop of spring flowering shrubs and cherry trees. I know when I get home I’ll be itching to go through all the bulb catalogues, dreaming of replicating similar displays in my own garden.
The theme for Floriade 2022 will equally be a great source of inspiration, especially for any town and city planners on the cruise, as this six-month-long international exhibition shows how the world’s gardeners, using modern technology, can use green solutions to make our communities more fun, liveable and sustainable. I guess it’s a look into how an ideal world would be, in my mind.
Living walls covering the sides of modern apartment buildings, providing habitats for wildlife and opportunities to grow food while living storeys high. Not wasting any space, they also have communal roof gardens with lines and groupings of smaller trees to soften the hard landscape on the streets outside. Rainwater harvested from roofs is diverted into rain gardens with any excess siphoned off into the rivers.
The footbridges constructed to cross them are made more pleasant when planted with greenery, too. This isn’t just talk. The legacy of Floriade will be the permanent estate that will become part of a new, green urban district.
It will be quite tiring with so much to take in, but with a nice meal in the evening, good company and a glass of wine while floating down the river to unwind, I’m sure the passengers will be fine.