I'm going to teach you a lesson

Yes, it is also partly due to a question we regularly receive about our shipping time for spring-flowering bulbs: why doesn't Fluwel send the bulbs much earlier? Of course that would be possible, after all, the bulbs have been in our shed for weeks, but we still don't do that. Really? No, really not!

I told you this a few years ago, but I will try to explain it to you again and even better. This is why we will only send the bulbs in the fall. Narcissus Roundita

At first glance, a flower bulb seems to be completely at rest during the summer months, when it is in the shed. You would think that it is on summer vacation, that it is, as it were, taking a summer nap, and quietly waiting to be planted again. Nothing could be further from the truth, this is all wrong. Summer is a very busy time for the flower bulb, in which it prepares for the following spring. I can already see you thinking: Carlos is fooling us again. You don't believe it, there is nothing to see on the outside of the flower bulb, you don't see anything happening, and if you don't see anything, there probably isn't much there. But everything with an outside also has an inside, and in this inside of the flower bulb lies the answer to the question "why do you only send the bulbs in the fall" waiting for us. We are going to undress the flower bulb and cut it open. Oops, don't get scared now, the viewing guide is still 'AL', we are really not going to show any horror images or other crazy stuff. Still, honesty compels me to say that unfortunately it will end badly for this flower bulb, it will not survive. Look, here is a Narcissus bulb that I have chosen to sacrifice herself for science, completely voluntarily. She shows you by means of an open heart operation with fatal outcome what she hides inside her. If you look closely, you can see that the entire daffodil plant is already present in the flower bulb. The leaf, a piece of flower stem, the flower, and if we zoom in even more you could even see the stamens and pistil of the flower.

When a Tulip, Hyacinth or Daffodil, Allium or other spring flowering bulb is brought to our shed at the beginning of the summer, there is still very little of it present in the heart of the bulb. This all grows during the summer in our shed in the bulb. At the Tulp, everything you see in spring is already available in the fall

Now the crux of the story, strange word actually crux, what it is really about is that the better you pamper the bulb during the summer months, the better the development, or birth, of the new flower will be. Give the flower bulb a constant warm temperature and sufficient fresh air in the summer, so that the sprout that will be in your garden next spring will develop as well as possible. Good storage of the flower bulb during the summer months is really reflected in the beauty and quality of the flower that will show itself to you next spring.

So… bulbs are shipped in the fall after they have been stored in our shed for long enough under optimal conditions. Just to be strict for a moment – ​​we are so busy now – we will throw in a housekeeping announcement from Renata: from now on it is no longer possible to combine new orders with orders that you have already placed. We are preparing to prepare your orders and the first order forms are being printed. Once you are on the pile, it will be difficult to add anything to your order… because where exactly are you on the pile? It is a service that we are happy to provide, adding to existing orders, it is of course more sustainable in terms of shipping, but once the merry-go-round is turning you can no longer get on.

What else to chew on. Actually I wanted to talk about flower bulbs in pots, but I think I have already wasted my letters with the look behind the scenes of the flower bulb.

I'm going to play outside again, there's still some overdue maintenance to be done in the garden. Next week the bulbs on the pots.

Oh yes, that is also really fun and something to be happy about: the Sunflower Maze at Land van Fluwel. It's fantastic what those girls have come up with again If you are in the area…

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek