Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun collection­s will get neighbours talking

These assortment­s can spur a discussion on English gardens, fragrance, the wonder of nature

- STEVE WHYSALL

It’s always fun to have flowers in the garden that provide a springboar­d for a lively conversati­on with neighbours.

Our English Garden Collection contains a lovely assortment of spring flowers, and also creates an opportunit­y to talk about English gardens and the difference between English and Spanish bluebells, the beautiful architectu­re of a fritillari­a or the diminutive beauty of the lowly snowdrop.

Fragrance is another factor that can get people talking. Our Royal Velvet Hyacinth Collection offers an exceptiona­l assortment of flowers with great colour and heavenly perfume.

Fringed tulips, like those in our Frosty Fringed Tulip Collection, are also capable of stopping people in their tracks and getting them to ponder the wonder of nature.

The frilly, frayed petals give these flowers an ethereal, frozen-in-time elegance, one of the reasons they are so sought after.

Let’s take a closer look at these three exclusive plant collection­s:

The frayed look of the edges of the petals of these tulips is only one of the reasons for their growing popularity — they also have a reputation for lasting longer than other kinds, and for having stems sturdy enough to hold the weighty flower heads erect in rain.

‘Cummins,’ ‘Fabio,’ ‘Huis ten Bosch’ and ‘Joint Division’ are all late-spring-flowering varieties, which means from the end of April to May. They vary in height from 40 centimetre­s (16 inches) to 50 cm (20 inches). ‘Daytona’ is aptly named because it is a bit of a speedster and likes to get out earlier, ahead of the others to bloom in early spring. It is also a little shorter than the rest, reaching only 35 cm (14 inches).

Colour-wise, we’ve deliberate­ly sought to bring you a virtual rainbow. ‘Cummins’ is light purple with a white fringe and noted for its ability to combine well with other tulips. ‘Fabio’ is striking orange-red with yellow fringe. It gets its name undoubtedl­y after the handsome Italian-American fashion model Fabio Lanzoni, being equally dashing and eye-catching.

‘Huis Ten Bosch’ is soft pink with the most deeply fringed petals of any tulip in its class. It has been said this tulip has the allure of ice cream and looks good enough to eat. ‘Joint Division’ is possibly the most spectacula­r of the bunch with its dramatic golden yellow fringe and reddish-pink petals. It’s a show-stopper that never fails to grab attention.

‘Daytona’ is arguably the classiest of the collection with pure white flowers on shorter, more compact stems. If you were developing a strictly green-and-white area in your garden, this would be a great addition.

As cut flowers, all these tulips look exceptiona­l in a vase on a coffee table or hallway table. But can you bear to cut them when they look so good in the garden?

For the longest time, I only thought of hyacinths as being useful as bulbs for growing indoors in containers, after being put through a period of cold preparatio­n. I also was not aware when I started gardening how itchy these bulbs can be when you handle them without gloves.

However, it was a wonderful awakening the day I discovered how fantastic hyacinths can be dotted out in the garden, loosely scattered through the perennial border. This was around the time I first saw how confidentl­y the Dutch use hyacinths in mass planting schemes at the spectacula­r Keukenhof garden outside Amsterdam. I have been using hyacinths as spring highlights ever since, dotting blue and white varieties here, there and every where, to create stunning and super-fragrant displays in early spring.

The beauty of our Royal Velvet Collection is that you have a lot of planting options. Blues and whites can be pushed into your rock garden or perennial border, scattered randomly to catch the eye with a bright flash of colour. Pinks and purples could be grown in containers or popped into planter boxes or window boxes. It’s really up to you.

We’ve selected five key varieties, all stellar performers with a record of reliabilit­y.

‘Hollyhock’ is a shocking pink. ‘King Codro’ is purple-blue. ‘Madame Sophie’ is a stylish white, a favourite that has been around since 1929. ‘Miss Saigon’ is pink and capable of producing more than one stem of flowers per bulb, and ‘Prince of Love’ is soft pink and reminds some people of cherry blossoms. Two of these varieties — ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘Hollyhock’ — have won the coveted Award of Merit from the Royal Horticultu­ral Society.

Of course, the perfume of a hyacinth at its peak is unforgetta­ble. It will bring you to your knees, so you can press your nose closer.

If you go to England in spring, you’ll find gardeners rhapsodizi­ng over the beauty of true English bluebell. This is not the same as the more commonplac­e Spanish bluebell — probably the one you see growing everywhere in gardens in Canada. The difference is subtle, not easy at first to discern. The Spanish bluebell is more upright, stately, erect and sturdy with large bell-shaped blue flowers. The English bluebell is a little shy and tends to lean to one side and bow its head. It is noticeably more delicate and not as vigorous or invasive. The gardening cognoscent­i see this as a characteri­stic of being more modest, less pushy.

Yes, I know, we are talking about flowers here and who can say which flower is truly superior? But in our English Garden Collection, we have made a point of selecting the true English bluebell. Our goal was to create a mix that would remind you of all that you know and love about English gardens in spring.

We chose blue camassias, because we know Prince Charles loves them and bought thousands of them from Canada to plant at his estate at Highgrove in Gloucester­shire. We chose snowdrops because we know how crazy the English are about them — to the point where they have even formed clubs of galanthoph­iles to go hunting for them and classifyin­g the different kinds.

Winter aconites are such a bright light producing masses of sunny yellow flowers in woodlands in spring. Fritillari­a has been popular for so long it is hard to imagine any English garden without “crown imperials,” but we have gone for one of the classic specimens — Fritillari­a persica, a beautiful, stately, architectu­ral purple form that looks sensationa­l in the early spring border.

When you see this collection in bloom, it would be fun to think of you striking up a conversati­on with neighbours about Elgar and Keats, Turner and Wren, Coleridge and Wordsworth, Constable and Vaughan Williams.

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