Old House Gardens Heirloom Flower Bulbs

Last Chance Treasures!

From America’s Expert Source for Heirloom Flower Bulbs

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It’s not too late!
You can still order any of these “Last Chance Treasures” for delivery and planting this fall.
To simplify your shopping, we’ve grouped EVERYTHING that’s still available for FALL planting right here. If you don’t find it here, it’s SOLD OUT (or it’s a spring-planted bulb like dahlias; click here for those).
Don’t delay. In a week or so, all of these amazing beauties will be gone — and it’s a long wait till next fall.

Bulb of the Year

Gladiolus byzantinus, BYZANTINE GLADIOLUS, 1629

TRUE STOCK! This is NOT the puny, cheap impostor you’ll get virtually everywhere else, but Texas-grown corms of the authentic, deep magenta heirloom that’s winter hardy to zone 6 and increases year after year into ever more beautiful clumps. A wild, perennial glad, it blooms with graceful, orchid-like flowers in earliest summer as it has since colonial days. Bill Welch of Texas A&M calls it “a delightful plant often found in old cottage gardens,” Christopher Lloyd planted it lavishly at Great Dixter, and in fall 2006 we honored it as our Heirloom Bulb of the Year. A.k.a. G. communis var. byzantinus ‘Cruentus’, 2-3 feet, zones 6-9aS/11aW, from Texas. Chart to compare.

#DI25 Add to Basket: 1/$13.50 3/$37 5/$58 10/$108 25/$243

Fritillaria meleagris, SNAKE’S-HEAD FRITILLARY, 1572

One of our perennial bestsellers, this odd little bulb is also called guinea-hen flower. Its nodding flowers are maroon and dusky rose, sometimes white, and each is checkered! Grown since colonial days, it prefers light shade and cool, moist sites. Our bulbs are wax-dipped to preserve their vitality. We forgot to plant some till February one year and they still bloomed! 10-12 inches, zones 4-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#DI04 Add to Basket: 10/$9.75 25/$22.50 50/$42 100/$78 250/$176

NEGRO BOY, 1910 RAREST

Its name may be a troubling anachronism, but this old crocus is too special to let go extinct. It’s the world’s deepest, darkest crocus, with midnight purple petals set off by a heart of gold and a tiny edging of silver. All but lost, it was preserved by one far-sighted collector in Latvia. C. vernus, zones 4-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#CR30 Add to Basket: 10/$12.25 25/$28 50/$52.50 100/$98 250/$221

Heirloom Daffodils

FIRETAIL, 1910 RAREST

This stunning short-cup daffodil has “a remarkable eye of solid, deep rich red,” to quote Albert Calvert in his monumental 1929 Daffodil Growing for Pleasure and Profit. That may be a bit exaggerated, but the first time this graceful antique bloomed here, the intense color of its flat, rippled cup bowled us over with pleasure. And it’s turning 100 this coming spring! 3 W-R, 18-20 inches, zones 5-7bS/9W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#DA95 Add to Basket: 3/$13.50 5/$21.50 10/$40 25/$91 50/$169

N. hispanicus MAXIMUS, TRUMPET MAJOR, 1576 WEB ONLY

Celebrated in gardens for over 400 years, ‘Maximus’ or ‘Trumpet Major’ is an especially fine form of N. hispanicus with a wild, primeval look. Its trumpet is boldly scalloped and flared, it’s petals make a dramatic star, and it lifts up its face as if worshipping the sun. It’s been treasured by Elizabethan, Victorian, and Arts and Crafts gardeners alike — and now it’s your turn! 1 Y-Y, 14-16 inches, zones 5-8aS/10W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#DA88 Add to Basket: 3/$14.50 5/$23 10/$43 25/$98 50/$181

QUEEN OF THE BLUES, 1870 RAREST & WEB ONLY

Every year we’re told it could be the last for this soft, silvery blue treasure. When the last Dutch farmer quits growing it, its price will skyrocket. Don’t wait! 10-12 inches, zones 5-8aS/10W, from Holland.

#HY29

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Temporarily Unavailable

ROMAN PINK, 1573 RAREST

Cinnamon-scented and multiplying eagerly year after year, this pale pink cousin of our ‘Roman Blue’, above, is equally wonderful. Like all Romans it’s a little less cold-hardy than other hyacinths, but its wildflowery grace and rich fragrance can’t be beat. And did we mention it multiplies? 8-10 inches, zones 6-8aS/10W, from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.

#HY37 Add to Basket: 1/$10 3/$27.50 5/$43 10/$80 25/$180

Heirloom Lilies

BLACK BEAUTY, 1957

Though absolutely gorgeous — with 15-40 turk’s-cap flowers of dark raspberry narrowly edged in silver — ‘Black Beauty’ is even more prized for its wonderful vigor and long life in all sorts of gardens. In fact, you’ll often hear it called “indestructible.” (Even lily beetles leave it alone, researchers say.) The first NALS Hall of Fame lily and our Heirloom Bulb of the Year for fall 2003, it’s a concensus choice for one of the 20th century’s very best. Sturdy 5-7 foot stems, mid-summer, zones 5-7S/9W, from Holland. Chart to compare.
To view our five-year-old clump of ‘Black Beauty’ in front of the Old House Gardens barn, click here.

#LL11 Add to Basket: 3/$15.75 5/$25 10/$47 25/$107 50/$197

CITRONELLA, 1958

Graceful, easy, and inexpensive, this wildflowery classic has been a Top 5 favorite in recent popularity polls of the North American Lily Society. Bred by Oregon’s legendary Jan de Graaff, it has all the charms of a wild lily, with slender, lemon-yellow, turk’s-cap flowers sprinkled with charming poppy seed dots. 4-5 feet, zones 4-8bS/10W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#LL27 Add to Basket: 3/$9.75 5/$15.50 10/$29 25/$66 50/$122

MRS. R. O. BACKHOUSE, 1921

Easier and stronger-growing than its parents, L. martagon and L. hansonii, ‘Mrs. Backhouse’ offers an impressive pyramid of up to 30 fuzzy pink buds that open to small, martagon-like blossoms, each a soft amber-gold touched with pink and dotted with maroon – subtle, different, artistic. Very cold hardy, best in lightest shade. 4-5 feet, zones 4-7S/9W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#LL30 Add to Basket: 1/$10.75 3/$29.50 5/$46.50 10/$86 25/$194

L. lancifolium ‘Splendens’, TIGER LILY, 1804

The first Asian lily to reach US gardens, this sturdy, salmony-orange turk’s-cap is an easy cottage-garden classic. It’s a pass-along plant in the South, but it thrives just as well at abandoned farmsteads in icy Minnesota. Stem bulblets fall and root themselves for easy increase. USDA-inspected, virus free bulbs. L. tigrinum, 3-5 feet, zones 4-8bS/10W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#LL04 Add to Basket: 3/$9.75 5/$15.50 10/$29 25/$66 50/$122

L. lancifolium ‘Flore-Pleno’, DOUBLE TIGER LILY, 1870

“A magnificent plant,” exclaimed C.L. Allen in 1893 about this delightfully odd lily that’s jam-packed with extra petals. Felder Rushing, champion of eccentric beauty and author of Passalong Plants, loves it, too, and tells us that in his garden tiger-swallowtail butterflies swarm to it. 3-5 feet, mid-summer blooming, zones 4-8bS/10W, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#LL33 Add to Basket: 3/$10.25 5/$16.50 10/$30.50 25/$69 50/$128

Heirloom Tulips

GENERAAL DE WET, 1904

The sunny, amber-orange candle flames of ‘Generaal de Wet’ will illuminate even the chilliest spring mornings. A sport of the great ‘Prince of Austria’, it’s just as tough and almost as richly fragrant — which is why it’s still such a favorite after more than a century. Try it paired with purple johnny-jump-ups outside and in a vase where you can savor its fragrance. Ahhhh! Single Early, 14 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

#TU14 Add to Basket: 5/$7.75 10/$14.50 25/$33.50 50/$62 100/$115

Fall-Planted Bulbs

For our print catalog click here or send $2.00 to Old House Gardens 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103. phone: 734-995-1486 fax: 734-995-1687 email: charlie@oldhousegardens.com		For our free email newsletter, “The Friends of Old Bulbs Gazette” with tips, news, history, & special offers, send us an email with “subscribe” in the subject line to newsletter@oldhousegardens.com.
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