How to give your tulips some love
Larry Paulger takes his work home with him and, in this case, it’s a beautiful arrangement.
Paulger, a Novato resident and owner of Paulger’s Plants & Bulbs, is a bulb and young plant broker who sells to botanical gardens across the country and wholesale nurseries mostly along the West Coast.
The annuals he sells fall primarily in what he humorously calls “the usual suspects” — impatiens, petunias and snapdragons. He also brokers perennials such as hostas and bush peonies, hardy garden ferns and flower bulbs, the bulk of which are tulips.
“Tulips represent $71 million in the United States cut flower market,” says Paulger, citing a recent trade magazine report. “They’re the most popular bloom and represent twice the sales of the next category, lilies, at $34 million in U.S. sales.” The next best category would be daffodils, he adds.
“Tulips and daffodils make a terrific garden,” he says.
His own garden is replanted annually with at least 600 bulbs, including his favorites, such as Olympic Flame tulips and selections from the Impressions collection, along with Pipit, Lemon Glow and St. Patrick’s Day daffodils.
For flower bulb enthusiasts, his bulbs can be seen in the fairly large permanent daffodil display near Filoli’s visitor center in Woodside, and more locally, in a median strip on Sunset Parkway in Novato that he’s adopted for the past three years.
The median strip, along with his own garden, are where he trials the success of his bulbs in order to help his clients learn more about bulbs that grow well in our area’s climate.
“It’s too warm at night along the coast for daffodils to perennialize here,” he says. He’s looking for the ones that will. “Generally, they won’t repeat although (a micro) location can make a difference.”
Daffodils are divided into divisions such as Trumpet (i.e. King Alfred or Dutch Master), Large Cup (i.e. Carlton) and Small Cup (i.e. Barrett Browning).
The division that does perennialize well in Marin are jon