Seeking Something Special

The process of ensuring the Bloms Bulbs catalogue offers a feast of choice starts years in advance, as brothers Paul and Chris Blom track down varieties from breeders, growers and trials

Poring over a colourful catalogue and choosing bulbs is a highlight of the year for many of us, matched only by the display when the bulbs finally flower. But before each catalogue is printed, years of work have already gone in.

“It starts with bulb hybridisers,” says Chris Blom who, with his brother Paul runs family business Bloms Bulbs. “The hybridisers produce new varieties and they’ll grow them on for two or three years to assess flowering ability, stamina, and how well they multiply. These breeders have such passion, it’s incredible. I visit one who has about 3,000 di erent da odils, 3,000 tulips, crocuses from everywhere, but only a few bulbs of each. It’s a real privilege to meet people like that and walk the fields with them.”

On his quest for new bulbs, Chris starts by visiting these breeders, on the lookout for a new bulb he knows he must add to the Bloms range. Tulip ‘Dreamer’ recently caught his eye – a romantic pale pink similar to the older variety ‘Angélique’, but with improved vigour. “It harks back to the old peony-flowered tulips, and it’s a really good one,” he explains.

There might only be a handful of bulbs that are available to buy but, once secured, they can be propagated at speed through scaling. Even so, it could be another ten years before there’s su cient stock to introduce it for sale. “Supply is so important,” says Chris. “We don’t want to disappoint our customers.”

Keukenhof’s trials are a regular stop on Chris’s travels, as are RHS Wisley’s. On his wish-list are good later-flowering tulips, and he’d love to find a new variety to replace old cultivar ‘Douglas Bader’. “We used to sell it years ago; it’s pale pink with a blue centre and a dark stem. Something like that would be absolutely fantastic.”

For all the thrill of the hunt and the awesome scale of the bulb fields, Chris likes nothing more than to see the bulbs he’s chosen growing in gardens back home. “I love garden settings more than anything,” he says. “To see bulbs make it from the fields to the garden, and the way people use them in so many di erent ways, makes the whole process worthwhile.”

Tel: +44 (0)1234 709099; blomsbulbs.com

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