Foot massage

Tulip Love Story

That's unbelievable, I make a bid of a good half euro each plus foot massage for the first cups of bulbs of the phenomenal Tulip Love Story that Grower Jan Vink is going to sell out of our way, he simply says 'no, maybe in the spring'. In the spring, the bid is without the foot massage Jan, that's a one-off, see for yourself. Jan laughs of course, he doesn't know what he's missing. Oops, what if Jan had said yes? Then I wouldn't have massaged Jan's feet but massaged Jan with my feet... that's also a foot massage, right? You have to dare, by the way, to offer Jan a foot massage. Jan is big, no not just big, Jan is very big. A giant of a guy. When Jan drives onto the yard and gets out of his van, the barking dog that runs around the car stops barking and runs away whining with its tail between its legs, the birds stop singing and the cat slides through the cat hole into the barn at a great pace. Once Jan is upright and his big smile is visible, everything is back to normal. Birds are whistling again, the dog comes wagging its tail, only the cat is peeking, the cat looking out of the tree, through the cat hole. Jan is the very image of goodness, has no evil in him and can grow bulbs together with his brothers and cousins ​​like the best.

Another Tulip from Jan Vink, a real cracker of a Tulip. No idea if she is really beautiful but she is certainly special. From her flower a new Tulip simply grows

Maybe this spring Jan said. I'm going to pitch a tent at the head of the field where Jan planted this Gulp-Tulp Love Story. I think it would be fantastic to be able to offer this tulip to you in the Fluwel web shop. I didn't come up with it myself 'GulpTulp', comes from Jan. In full bloom it reaches your gulp as high as it gets... a GulpTulp.

Things are going well again, I wanted to talk about Dahlias. Sorry, I was distracted by the Love Story, one of the largest and most elegant Tulips I have ever seen. Now the Dahlia, starting with a request. Normally I never do requests unless of course they are requested. How do Dahlia growers propagate their Dahlias was the question from a lovely lady who buys tubers from us.

To give a good answer to that, the wheels are turned in the direction of Anna Paulowna to go and see Peter Komen. As crazy as I am about Daffodils, Peter is crazy about Dahlias. You may already know Peter a little from the descriptions of the Dahlias in the Fluwel web shop, because he is talked about there every now and then. Peter is one of the best Dahlia breeders and has many a successful number in his repertoire. The Dahlia Night Silence for example, she was sold out in a jiffy, also by Peter.

But I'm not going to name all of Peter's varieties, I'm going to show how he propagates his seedlings. This is on a very small scale, Peter only has 1 tuber of all those varieties, but in practice with Dahlia growers it's done in exactly the same way. By the way, what you're going to see, if your fingers are a little green, you can do yourself with a few small adjustments. At the end I'll tell you how. In a loft above his garage Peter has planted his Dahlias in pots and lets them grow there quietly under TL lighting at a temperature of 20 degrees. There are over 600 pots here and mind you, each pot contains a different species. Peter selected these tubers one by one from his Dahlia sowings last summer, these are all new species with at least one beautiful flower. As soon as a sprout grows on the tuber that is a few centimetres long, it is carefully broken off from the tuber and placed separately in a pot with the seedling number. Before Peter picks another cutting from the next Dahlia, he disinfects his fingers in a jar of soap to prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria.

Here you see Peter standing with a tray of pots in front of him, each pot containing cuttings from the various seedlings that have just been picked. We are no longer in the attic, this is downstairs in the garage where the cuttings are planted. The red color comes from the LED light of the growth lamps. The cuttings are planted in seed trays, the holes of which are filled with seed soil. First, poke a hole with a pen that no longer works so as not to bruise the delicate Dahlia cuttings too much Before planting, the cuttings are first dipped in a cutting powder, which stimulates root development.  This is the cutting powder One by one the cuttings are planted at the right number. You really have to be a stickler for detail not to make mistakes, before you know it there is a cutting at the wrong label. While I was chatting like this I saw Peter make a mistake once and hesitate twice but luckily there were two of us so it turned out fine. But maybe Peter was also a bit nervous, he had an appointment with the dentist… brrrr. After about 10 days, the Dahlia cutting has already developed roots

By the way, it is nice to know the light requirement of the Dahlia, Peter was able to tell that the lamps had to burn for 14 to 16 hours. If you let them burn for a shorter period, the Dahlia cuttings will immediately start to produce flowers, if the lamps burn for a longer period, the Dahlia will get stressed and the entire leaf will curl up. The Dahlia needs a night's rest of 8 hours to feel good. Another fun fact; tomato leaf. If you talk to those Dahlia fanatics a lot you will hear the term 'tomato leaf' every now and then. This is a Dahlia with Tomato leaf, instead of a regular leaf with serrated edge it is more the shape of a hand with fingers

Now the promise to tell you how you can do this at home. Plant a Dahlia upon receipt, just like Peter did, in a pot and put it in a heated room by the window. You will soon see the cuttings appear. Pick this cutting and plant it in the same way, dipped in a little root powder in a small pot. First put this pot for a week or two in a somewhat cooler room where there is also a lot of light until it has made a root. When you see the cutting growing again, put it outside to continue growing. Not in full sun, a little half shade and above all make sure that it never comes into contact with night frost. The delicate leaves will freeze at the slightest frost. Take good care of the pots, when the cuttings start growing they will dry out quickly. If necessary, transplant them to a somewhat larger pot, that is easy because they quickly have a good root ball. As soon as the chance of night frost has disappeared, you can plant them in the open ground in the garden. It is nice to know that from 1 Dahlia tuber, if you do it properly, you can easily pick 20 cuttings. And these cuttings each make a plant that grows just as big as 1 single thick tuber that you buy from us. If you are going to try it, good luck, I hope you succeed.

I'm going to stop, I'm already way above my words tax. There's one more thing I have to say; Renata asked me to let you know that all orders we've received so far have been sent. Have lots of fun with your Dahlias and other summer bloomers.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek