Dutchgrown bulbs on trial

Last autumn I was approached and asked if I would like some Dutchgrown bulbs on trial in my garden. I hadn’t previously been aware of this bulb supplier and so I was intrigued to try some.

dutchgrown.co.uk duly supplied me a selection of bulbs completely free of charge but I’m delighted to say that this in no way affected my impression of how well these bulbs have performed! They have been simply superb!

Varieties on trial

Most of the bulbs that I tried were daffodils. These were Paperwhite, Kaydee, Minnow and Attraction.

But I also received corms of Crocus Flower Record and Anemone St Brigid.

All arrived in excellent condition but rather later than I would have liked to have received them vis. mid November 2020.

Narcissus Paperwhite

The first to flower among these was the Narcissus tazetta ‘Paperwhite’ which is noted for it’s strong sweet perfume.

I potted these into two large 10 litre pots using ordinary potting compost. These pots spent about 7 weeks in our cool garage. I placed them there to encourage plenty of roots before introducing the pots to the warmth of indoors.

You’ll notice that I planted the bulbs well down in the pot and close together but not actually touching one another. This variety was already shooting!

Away from the coast or south west tip of England this variety is not really hardy enough to grow outside.

As soon as I could see plenty of strong white roots I knew that I could bring these bulbs inside our home and that they would very quickly grow and flower.

Paperwhite daffodils are a perfect alternative to forcing Hyacinths indoors. Incidentally I’ve written my tips on forcing hyacinths here.

I knew that this was a tall variety that is prone to flopping over and so I cut some twigs to insert between the bulbs to provide support. I’d recommend that you do this too and somehow those sticks look very natural and acceptable.

I’m sure that it wasn’t intended but I discovered that not only had I grown ‘Paperwhite’ but that there were a few ‘Avalanche’ mixed in too! This mixture was really successful and I’d repeat it.

This is another excellent Narcissus tazetta variety that is very easy to force into flower for Christmas or the first few weeks of the New Year.

Both varieties are strongly scented and will fill a room with their delightful perfume!

 

 

 

 

Other Daffodils

By contrast to the ‘Paperwhite’ all the remaining varieties were very late flowering. In fact some are still in flower in early May.

I grew some of each variety in my dutchgrown bulb trial in large pots and the rest I planted in the ground.

‘Minnow’ has the tiniest blooms but unlike many other small flower varieties it has tallish stems. ‘Minnow’ is at its best during mid April.

Both those in pots and those planted between shrubs performed really well and gave a good show.

I was especially pleased with the ‘Minnow’ grown in a pot.

‘Kaydee’ was a new variety to me.

It performed extremely well and impressed me by how long it lasted in flower.

As I write this on May 10th those planted in the border between shrubs are still giving a good show.

 

 

I like the almost tangerine coloured trumpet that ‘Jaydee’ has.

This is definitely a variety that I will grow again!

The last to flower was well worth the wait!

‘Attraction’ was the last Dutchgrown bulbs trial variety to flower.

This is a very bold and strong trumpet daffodil. It has really good foliage, great colour and large trumpets.

If you are looking for a very late flowering yellow trumpet daffodil for your garden then this is the one to grow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crocus Flower Record

I have to confess that I’m not the greatest fan of the large flowered Dutch crocus. That’s because I much prefer the so called ‘snow’ or ‘specie’ crocus. This earlier blooming smaller flowered type is more weather proof.

I planted some ‘Flower Record’ crocus in a trough and they performed reasonably well but blooms were short lived.

I planted others with Violas in containers and there they looked better.

The remainder of the corms were planted around a newly planted tree and unfortunately the very wet late half of the winter caused waterlogged soil in this area. The crocus did not like this!

I did notice that after the crocus had flowered that their leaves actually looked good with white and pale blue viola plants. Each crocus leaf has a silver stripe down the middle and this complimented the colour combination.

 

 

 

 

 

Anemone St Brigid

I couldn’t believe how big the corms of the Anemone were when I opened the bag! These were huge and have produced excellent results.

Soaking the corms in water overnight before planting improves establishment so I did that.

I planted a few in a pot and they just keep on blooming!

And I planted a few more in a flower border with herbaceous perennials. In time I hope that they will provide early colour before the perennials get going.

The vast majority of the Anemone St Brigid corms in my Dutchgrown bulbs trial were planted into a Keder Greenhouses polytunnel that I have.

Incidentally I’ve written a review of my Keder tunnel here.

I planted the corms in the soil in there and leaves emerged during February. These were soon followed by masse of strong stemmed blooms!

I’ve picked a bunch of flowers every other day from late March until now [May 10th] and there looks to be plenty more to come.

Anemone used to be an important traditional cut flower crop in the West of England.  Here winters tend to be mild but the flower quality is improved by growing with polythene protection.

 

Summary

Well would I recommend buying bulbs from Dutchgrown.co.uk ? Based on this Dutchgrown bulbs trial I most certainly would!