As we face the prospect of a long, chilly winter, the gardeners among us are busy planting their bulbs, which will sprout next year with the first signs of spring. Today, in the age of aromatherapy and the celebration of scents, gardeners are choosing fragrance over color in selecting their bulbs.
According to Sally Ferguson, director of the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center, gardeners are clamoring for fragrant flowers in the same way they’re begging for juicy tomatoes. “Who wants pithy five-pound tomatoes or the world’s biggest, floppiest flower?” she says. “Gardeners want ‘the real thing’ – they want tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and flowers that offer the kind of magical balance of color, form and fragrance Mother Nature intended.”
Ferguson offers this list of “best bet” fragrant spring-blooming bulb flowers to look for and plant this fall:
Since many tulips lose their fragrance when cut, forcing bulbs in pots is the way to bring the scents of spring indoors – whether forced over winter at home, or bought in spring as potted plants.
0 comments