Seasonal Border Chronicle #1
November, 2008
By Tovah Martin
A Flick of the Wrist
The technique is simple. Tossing is an apt description of the seemingly off-hand method of broadcasting the bulbs. The smaller bulbs were premixed in large plastic bins.The larger bulbs were thrown in separately, but also flung with a flick of the wrist. When you’ve done this as often as Jacqueline (who’d just finished a 50,000-bulb planting spree in the Netherlands), you get the wrist-action perfected. But basically, the goal is to evenly distribute the bulbs so they fall about an inch apart between perennials throughout the border. And when she was done, the entire border was covered with bulbs (“the whole surface is a tapestry of bulbs,” as she puts it).
From there, it was just the cold process of digging the bulbs in, with the aid of Frans Roozen from the International Flower Bulb Centre and an impressive work force from the NYBG. Previously planted with perennials, the soil had been prepared into a friable cake mix consistency. Armed with a plantschopje (a heart-shaped bulb planting tool), which Frans brought with him from Holland for the purpose, the bulbs were turned in and covered with soil. Simple as that. In the best of all worlds, larger bulbs would go deeper – and that was done for the daffodils and tulips. But we were assured that if an allium or two failed to be buried 5-6 inches deep, it would prevail nonetheless. We left for hot coffee and the warm comfort of our hotel with that hope in mind.