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Spring-Blooming Bulbs

Anything-But-Dusty Antiques: Heirloom Bulbs for Every Garden

by Scott Kunst

Heirloom bulbs are not dusty has-beens, as more and more gardeners are discovering with delight. Most are gorgeous, many are unusual, and they often out-perform modern cultivars. What's more, all can bring to your garden a rich, living connection to the past.

Heirloom bulbs go by many names: antique bulbs, heritage bulbs, historic, vintage, classic, legacy, and old-fashioned bulbs. Some people try to define them by date—for example, bulbs that were introduced into gardens at least 50 years ago—but I think it's better to simply define heirlooms as older garden varieties and, in particular, as those that are becoming hard to find and are in danger of being lost forever.

Even if history bores you to tears and you'd never hang an antique quilt in your 21st-century home, there's a good chance you'll find bulbs from the past that you will love. Here are my top eight reasons why.

'Marie' and 'General Kohler'

Bred for gardens rather than pot culture, antique hyacinths are richly fragrant. 'Marie' is dark indigo-purple; 'General Kohler' has double bells of blue-purple.

Heirlooms are tough and easy. It's not surprising that heirloom bulbs are still with us decades or even centuries after many of their peers have vanished. They're usually tough, vigorous, disease-resistant, and adaptable to a wide variety of garden conditions. Think about it—if the jaunty 'Campernelle' narcissus, for example, has endured in gardens for more 400 years, isn't there a good chance it will last a good while in your garden too?

Heirlooms are unusual and distinct. If you like gardening with plants that are different, look to the past. Many heirloom bulbs offer unique features that newer varieties have not been able to match. There are crown imperials with gold-edged leaves, gloriously fragrant tulips (best of all, 'Prince of Austria'), perfect trumpet daffodils a few inches tall, and hyacinths that are virtually black. Heirloom bulbs can help transform your garden from humdrum to unique.

Heirlooms are often rich in fragrance. Fragrance is hard to breed for and not a top priority for most hybridizers, so it often disappears in newer introductions. Heirloom bulbs, however, are often powerfully fragrant. Hyacinths, lilies, daffodils (Narcissus), and the old white Freesia alba head the list, but there are others to be discovered by gardeners with an adventurous nose.

Heirlooms are a lot like wildflowers. Many of them have an informal grace and natural charm—and with good reason. The oldest heirloom bulbs are simply wildflowers—though no longer wild-collected, of course—and the earliest selections and crosses that ancient gardeners made from those natural gems.

Tulipa clusiana

It's easy to help save endangered garden plants: Just grow them. Heirloom varieties that fall out of favor risk being lost forever. Tulipa clusiana above.

Heirlooms are often regionally adapted. The vast majority of mainstream bulbs sold in North America today are raised in the cool temperate climate of the Netherlands. Many of these will fail in more challenging niches, especially in the South, but with a little effort you can find heirloom bulbs that will thrive for you, no matter where you garden. In fact, many are thriving in old gardens all around you, though they may be all but impossible to find at modern, mass-market sources.

Heirlooms are genetically diverse and unique. Genetic diversity is our best hope for breeding plants that will meet future needs, be they in food crops or ornamental plants. In order to develop tough, unusual bulbs for the widest diversity of challenges—and individual tastes—we can't afford to squander the rich genetic inheritance of heirlooms.

Heirlooms are endangered and in need of your help! Rainforest rarities are not the only unique, irreplaceable plants that are being lost forever. Every year an incredible array of endangered garden plants is slipping through our fingers. One sobering example: In the 1800s, when dahlias ranked right up there with roses in popularity, some 10,000 named, distinct cultivars were introduced. Today only three of these survive. Though we may not be able to save the giant panda in our own backyard, we can all help with endangered garden plants. Just grow them. It's the only way to save them.

Best of all, heirlooms root us. In the same way that old photos hanging on the wall can make us feel more deeply the bonds we share with friends and family, heirloom bulbs in the garden can help root us in a timeless community of gardeners. Your dahlia-loving grandfather, the young woman who planted daffodils at your house ages ago, and even Thomas Jefferson or Empress Josephine—you can bring them all into your garden by growing heirloom bulbs. I don't know anything else that can add to your garden more pleasure or emotional power.

Enrich your garden, touch the past, and help save an irreplaceable inheritance.

20 Great Heirloom Bulbs

Crocuses

  • 'Cloth of Gold' (C. angustifolius)—1587, the old "Turkey crocus"; bees flock to it.
  • 'Negro Boy'—circa 1910, the name is an unfortunate relic, but the cultivar is the darkest crocus ever, midnight-purple.
  • C. tommasinianus—1847, lavender wildling, rated "most rodent-resistant."
'Butter and Eggs'

'Butter and Eggs', a long-loved double daffodil, has been in cultivation since 1777.

Daffodils

  • 'Butter and Eggs'—1777, yellow and gold double, a folk favorite.
  • 'Campernelle'—1601, thrives in Southern gardens that have been abandoned for centuries.
  • 'Conspicuus'—1869, Victorian landmark, graceful as a butterfly.
  • 'Early Louisiana' jonquil—1612, its sweet fragrance is the essence of spring.
  • 'Irene Copeland'—1915, primrose-and-ivory, perfect for an Easter bonnet.
  • 'Mrs. R.O. Backhouse'—1921, the first "pink" daffodil, luscious apricot trumpet.
  • 'Seagull'—1893, snow-white wings, lemon cup kissed with orange.
  • 'W.P. Milner'—1869, elfin miniature, silvery yellow nodding trumpets.

Hyacinths

  • 'General Kohler'—1878, luxuriant double bells of blue-purple.
  • 'Marie'—1860, deep, dark indigo-purple and richly fragrant.
  • 'Prinses Maria Christina'—1948, soft peach with gold highlights.

Tulips

  • 'Clara Butt'—1889, undisputed queen for decades, now all but lost.
  • Lady tulip (T. clusiana)—1607, tough but dainty white-and-rose wildflower.
  • 'Philippe de Comines'—1891, as dark and rich as polished mahogany.
  • 'Prince of Austria'—1860, powerfully fragrant and enduring.
  • 'Willem van Oranje'—1933, peach and copper double, as if painted by Renoir.
  • 'Zomerschoon'—1620, exquisite relic of Tulipomania, pricey but priceless.

Scott Kunst is the owner of Old House Gardens, the world's only mail-order source devoted entirely to heirloom bulbs. With a small crew of dedicated enthusiasts, he searches the globe for spectacular old bulbs that are in danger of extinction and then works with small farmers to propagate and offer them through his catalog and web site to gardeners across the United States. A landscape historian and popular lecturer, Kunst gardens in the historic Old West Side neighborhood of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Photos: Scott Kunst