Ben's Grapes

'Are you coming around today or tomorrow, appie from Ben, I have something for you'. Yes indeed, that's a coincidence, tomorrow morning I arrive by boat from Harwich in Hoek van Holland. Together with Johan van Scheepen and Jan Pennings. We were briefly back and forth to England for a meeting of The Bulb Committee. Johan van Scheepen had been invited to give a lecture on the new way of registering Tulips.

Shall I tell you more about that later or shall I already give you a little hint? No, in a news blog the news belongs, so I'll tell you right away. The classification of the Tulips is going to be overhauled. Oops, how can I explain that simply and clearly; what is classification.

Botanists like to classify all plants into boxes so that they know exactly where a Tulip belongs. This does not only apply to Tulips, but also Daffodils, Dahlias, Crocuses, Snowdrops and who knows what other plants, everything is classified into boxes by botanists. In this way, real Daffodil lovers know exactly how a Daffodil classified in the group of the triandrus Daffodils behaves and also know that this is different from a Daffodil classified in the group of the jonquilla Daffodils. In this way, they also know that a Galanthus (snowdrop) of the nivalis type is different from a Galanthus of the elwesii type. The Fimbriata Dahlia looks like this and the Ball Dahlia looks like this… everything is in boxes and so is the Tulip.

The tulips were thus neatly divided into the following groups:

Some early tulips

Double early tulips

Triumph Tulips

Darwin hybrid tulips

Some late tulips

Lily flowered Tulips

Fringed Tulips

Viridiflora Tulips

Rembrandt Tulips

Parakeet Tulips

Double late tulips

Kaufmanniana Tulips

Fosteriana Tulips

Greigii Tulips

Species Tulips

This is of course for you as a dear newsletter reader a ratatouille of groups that you or any other Hendrik Jan the gardener cannot make soup of. We are going to do that differently was the idea of ​​Mr Johan van Scheepen. We are going to make a classification that is also understandable for you as a gardener or any other Jan met de pet.

Van Scheepen is currently working on the following layout:

Single flowered Tulips, these are then classified into early, mid and late flowering

Double flowered Tulips, which are also classified as early, mid and late flowering.

Furthermore, in addition to describing the flowering period, it is also possible to mention whether a tulip is Viridiflora, or Parrot, or lily-flowered, or Rembrandt, or Fringed.

This is of course much more interesting for you as a consumer because here you have information that matters at a glance.

Coldplay was in the old classification system a: Fringed Tulip. In the new classification system it is a: Single mid blooming Tulip Fringed and Rembrandt.

La Perla becomes a Lily-flowered Tulip instead of a

Single flowered Tulip mid flowering Tulip Lily flowered

Sugar Crystal: Double Flowered Tulip (M) for mid flowering, fringed

Crispion Sweet: Double-flowered Tulip (E) for early, fringed.

You see; it's different, it's clearer and it was a nice outing. You're driving fast, Johan said at one point to Jan who was behind the wheel. Do you really have to say that, Jan replied to Johan who was sitting next to them, you're going just as fast.

We had a good laugh and did some fun things. When we arrived in England we first picked up Alan Shipp and because we had time we went to see an old friend of his: Lord Timothy Clark. I say old friend because Alan is 85 and his friend is 89 years old. The special thing about this man was that he is a passionate gardener and only wants plants in his garden that are from before 1920. When I offered to send him a Hyacinth he politely declined... no modern plants in the garden. Old apple trees, old chrysanthemums, old roses, everything, absolutely everything was old. He was also bringing a very old ranunculus back to life that was germinating in an, also old, seed tray. Every time he picks the seeds from the strongest plants and it automatically comes back to its full glory. 'It takes 4 generations to bring back the intelligence and a fifth to make a Lady' was the vision of his breeding work. Beautiful, what a beautiful man. Lord Timothy used the same approach in the house as in the garden, no modern stuff. Everything there was at least 100 years old. Really? Yes, really. Porcelain cups that you can only drink from with your little finger up, cabinets, rugs, paintings, clocks… nostalgia trickled down from everything, absolutely everything. A visit with a golden edge. But I’m going to stop again, it’s Friday afternoon and the translators are waiting for my text. Next week we’ll continue our chatter.

Kind regards,

Carlos

Oh yes, we got a lovely crate of Westland blue grapes from Ben, hence the title 'Ben's Grapes'. Ben is Ben van Geest who, together with his brother Gerard, runs a top-notch Amaryllis nursery near Hoek van Holland. When Ben sent me the Appie I thought great, I can write the News Blog about that, the Amaryllis, but now that I read it back I see that I have digressed a bit. Next week the Amaryllis. But feel free to take a look.