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[SG] Bulbs

With everybody putting their two cents worth in about bulbs, I want to
stick my neck out and recommend OLD HOUSE GARDENS. Proprietor is Scott
Kunst, Ann Arbor, MI, e-mail OHGBulbs@aol.com. Catalog costs $3 I believe,
and is great fun to read. If you have an old house (or are the curator of
Williamsburg, etc.), this catalog is for you! They specialize in antique
varieties, many not available elsewhere: cannas, crocus, lilies, tulips,
fritillaries, daffodils, etc etc., all varieties developed prior to 1945
at the latest and many very very old, including some wonderful antique
daffodils that grow well in the southern USA. They also offer unusual
snowdrops, a different variety every year so that you have to keep
ordering if you are a snowdrop snob and want them all.

I have not ordered from them yet, but have heard good things about them.
This year I plan to order white Duke of Wellington tulips (1925), another
tulip called Phillipe de Comines (1891)  which is mahogany colored, and am
tempted by Mrs. John T. Scheepers, 1930, a yellow, named for the wife of
America's most prestigious bulb-seller. There are many more that sound
irresistible, but I don't have that much space!

I'm also ordering Fritillaria meleagris, the guinea-hen flower, which
likes shade and was known by 1572, Muscari botryoides, the "original"
grape hyacinth, known by 1576 (almost supplanted by armeniacum, the one
most bulb dealers sell), Martagon Lily (another shade lover, 1568),
Narcissus Albus 'Plenus Odoratus', the very late double poeticus (1601?),
and some Chinese Sacred Lily narcissus (1880s) for forcing. They say that
this has a very different look from the modern Israeli bulbs we get
nowadays as a rule.

They also sell Winter Aconite tubers and claim that the special wax
coating keeps them from drying out. They are more expensive than ordinary
sources, but if that's true it will be well worth it to those who can't
beg a spadeful of fresh tubers from a friend.

Bobbi Diehl
Bloomington, IN
zone 5/6
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