Pregnant Flower bulbs

Oh how the time flies. Well, that’s old news of course. Usually, it isn’t fun at all when time goes by so fast. Especially when you are enjoying yourself. But still there always is a turning point. I can imagine when you order flower bulbs in May or June you cannot wait for October to come when they finally get delivered. And, as you can see, it’s that time already. Time really flies.

A trailer of PostNL loaded with orders (picture 2021)

Tomorrow, PostNL is coming to pick up the first orders, and the people that ordered before mid-August, can expect their order to arrive somewhere in the upcoming week. Please do not call us when you ordered later than mid-August and are longing to have your bulbs so soon as well. I have to be strict here; we process the orders in the same order as we received them. Your turn will come, I promise. Of course, we think it is amazing that you order so much bulbs from our web site, and believe me, we would have loved to ship them all tomorrow, but we cannot break iron with our hands.

But all jokes aside, we are extremely happy with the interest you show in in our bulbs. The number of orders.. words cannot express our gratitude. Thank you.

Pregnant Tulip bulb

We often get asked why we only start processing and shipping the orders at the end of September and beginning of October. I probably explained it before as well, but because the question keeps coming back I will try to explain it as clear as possible for you. And here the title of this newsletter, which probably made you raise your eyebrows earlier, comes into play. The flower bulbs are expecting during the summer months.

Pregnant Daffodil bulb

On the outside it looks like the bulbs are in a complete state of rest, but on the inside the bulb is working as hard as possible to create new life. Within the bulb, a magical process is happening where cell by cell a new flower is created that you will get to see in spring. The bulb is simply, very much pregnant. And if the flower bulb gets pampered enough it will have a positive outcome for the flower that will get birthed next spring. When the bulbs are conserved in the right temperature and humidity with enough fresh air during their pregnancy, the chances for an optimally developed large and long flowering flower will rise.

The sprout of a Daffodil that has grown in the bulb during the summer months.

Put on your reading glasses and pop open a flower bulb when it’s time to plant her, you will see a wonderful display. Every part of the flower that lies within the bulb can already be seen at this time; on the outside you can see the sprout of the leaves, and when you start picking a little bit more, you can see the petals of the flowers, the stamens, and even the pestle.

The sprout but opened a bit more, this is a Daffodil with multiple flowers on one stem. You can see all the little flowers here.

Years of research at the LBO (Laboratory for Flower Bulb Research) shows that keeping flower bulbs at the right temperature in summer time will benefit the flower that you will get to see in spring. I learned it myself at the horticultural school in Lisse. Our teacher, mister Guus Papendrecht, taught us in one of the first classes: flower bulbs are cultivated in the nursery. It didn’t make sense to us at that time; we thought flower bulbs are grown at the fields. Of course, later it became clear. Even though the cultivation at the fields is important, when you mess up in the nursery the bulbs will never be up to standard.

When you open the flowers a bit more you can even see the stamens, and between the stamens the pestle. The loose membranes around the stamens are the flower petals.

And so it’s similar to the flower bulbs we offer in our webshop. We treated them with care during their pregnancy so they can come into the world in their best state. The flowers in the bulbs are developed properly and when they have experienced the cold winter, they will flower beautifully in your own garden next spring. Feel free to take a look at our webshop, the variety of flower bulbs is still magnificent.

With kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek