Tulips

Thank you folks...I shall begin at the top and work downwards towards Sherry8.

GLENDANN: I'm glad that you had some luck with your tulips. They can be beautiful, but sometimes they do rot in the ground as well as fall prey to rodents.
There are a couple of different ways to plant them and here in Holland you can buy special tools fro making holes in the ground.

KASEYLIB: Burrrrrrrr... Great Scott! You still have a ways to go there, don't you until the green re-appears. Never mind, the folks on here will continue supporting you with colourful piccies to brighten your mood and giove you hope.
It's great that you can get cut flowers there to decorate your home.
Chin up nad be strong... it's on it's way.

DROOPY: Heh heh... you ought to be able to find a place for some bulbs. They can be planted under other plants that you will have blooming in the summer--esentially, you can have teo plants planted in the same place. That's what I do. I plant other plants right on top of the tulip bulbs and they come into their own as the tulips die-back.
Good luck finding a good place for them. I hope there is a plot that you can see them from, from a window in your house.

NETTY: Yes masses of tulips are very impressive to see. In the spring large acres of land in the countryside surrounding my city are veriatable carpets of colour--very impressive indeed. I will try and remember to post a couple of pics when they are blooming before the farmers decapitate them.

PETUNIA: They might be worth trying again. Do you remember if you put sand in the hole under the bulb? (they need good drainage) when you planted them?. They are so lovely it's worth experimenting on how to plant them...there are different factors.

POLLY: You are certainlly welcome. I enjoyed looking at them too.

EILEEN: I shall cross my fingers for you. It would be a shame if they didn't come up---but I'm betting they will. Have you had alot of rain there this winter? WE have, and it's the only thing that I worry about.

SHERRY8: Thanks for the nice words.
The place where I garden is on a large expanse of land. http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page14.html
(If you go to this page and place your cursor on the little map it will automatically switch to a diagram showing the whole complex)
This land is divided into allotments/gardens, ranging in size from 100m² to 400m² (a meter is roughly a yard).
The land is owned by our Gardening Association (club). It has to be said that most allotment complexes across the country; however, are owned and leased to individuals by the county governments.
The plots are availble for folks to grow flowers or veggies (or both) for personal use only. It is not permitted to grow things to sell commercially.

The allotments are a tradition that arose after WW2 when this country had been devistated by German occupation and most families were quite poor. In fact that winter is known as "the Hunger Winter" and many people simply starved to death. Something had to be done until we could get back on our feet. Allotments helped alleviate the sociial costs. The plots were located typically alongside rail road tracks (and out of the way for building new housing for surviving residents).
The folks with plots were also allowed to collect coal that fell from the trains to heat their homes in the winter.
So, you can see it is presently a hobby that had it's origin as a social measure to assist the almost destitute survivors of the war.
One question of yours that I don't understand is where you asked:"Do you use them to into your own homes?" What do you mean? Sometimes I'm a bit thick between the ears. heh heh heh.

I never mind answering questions about the allotment tradition, because I am aware that it is not a common thing outside europe.

I don't know about the Mung. Are they Vietnameese folks that helped the U.S. in the Viet Nam war and were brought to america afterwards as thanks and to save their lives? I had no idea that there were communities there.
I am sorry that you do not understand my website. Is it my English or were you looking at the Dutch version?
If you see unclear places or misspellings, I would like to know so that I can correct it.

I hope that that answered your questions pretty well. Please ask about anything that you don't understand, I shall never be irritated, I promise.

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Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html

Hiyah Sherry,

The flowers I grow, I prefer to leave in the garden, but sometimes I can force myself to cut some and to take home. With great difficulty, I might add. ha ha ha. I spend more time in the garden in the summer than I do at home, actually.

As for planting other plants where the tulips are: I plant the tulips deep and the other plants I plant above them (shallower).
I do the same with narcisses and boshyacint (Hyacinthoides hispanica). It works ok because when they are bloomed out I remove the flower stems...then a week or so later-- as the other plants begin to peek through the soil, I remove the green foliage.
I have done it with several different types of plants, such as Astrantia, Poppies, Japaneese anemone, Choreopsis and Ecchynacea to name a few.
when I begin I plant the bulbs deeply in the fall, and mark their position with a straw then plant the "co-inhabitors" which have shallowish roots inbetween the straws. Know what I mean? Wink

I hope it is clear.
Good luck navigating around my website. If you cannot find the english version, let me know.
It's night time here now.

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Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html