On a recent Saturday, I spent the morning planting bulbs at Lurie Garden along with other volunteers and staff. This was the beginning of a massive effort to revitalize LG’s spring flower display through planting 61,000 bulbs.
Now, 61,000 bulbs is a lot of bulbs. For instance, if the average length of the bulbs is 2.5 inches, 61,000 bulbs end to end would stretch about 2.4 miles. Another way to look at it: if planting bulbs takes an average of 1 minute each (which seems pretty fast to me, though I actually have no idea), it would require just over 1,000 person hours to get 61,000 bulbs into the ground.
The new plantings were designed by Jacqueline van der Kloet, who also designed the Lurie Garden’s original bulb plantings in 2006. Here’s just a small part of Jacqeline’s design for this year.
Jacqueline and her colleague Frans Roozen came all the way from Holland to oversee the planting.
Stems of perennials and grasses were tied together to give a clearer view of the ground. The Lurie Garden always looks like it is bursting with leaves and flowers, so it was odd to see the open space between the crowns of the plants.
Jacqueline’s design style looks natural but is carefully thought through. She mixes specific varieties to create the effect she has in mind. If you want to know more about how she mixes bulb varieties, you should read her book, Colour Your Garden.
The weather was chilly on the day I helped out. We were divided into groups and assigned to a specific area of the garden. To create a more informal look, we were instructed to scatter handfuls of bulbs from our own bucket in particular areas, then plant them more or less where they lay.
Over the course of the project, over 50 volunteers helped to get the job done. They were a diverse bunch in age (about half were teens) and background. This was a reflection of how Lurie Garden staff connects with communities all over the city.
I have to admit I was a little embarrassed by the fact that I can’t kneel for long periods of time, and always end up lying on my side while planting bulbs. This is something I don’t give a thought to when working at home, but here it felt a bit conspicuous.
So I’ll bet you are wondering: which bulbs were they planting? Well, wonder no more, as LG Director Laura Ekasatya was nice enough to provide me with a list. Here it is:
Hybrid Tulips
- ‘Ballade’
- ‘Don Quichotte’
- ‘Purissima’
- ‘Queen of Night’
- ‘Spring Green’
- ‘Flaming Spring Green’
- ‘Maureen’
Species Tulips
- T. turkestanica
- T. urumiensis
- T. bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’
- T. humilis violacea ‘Black Base’
- T. hageri ‘Splendens’
Daffodils
- ‘W.P. Milner’
- ‘Sailboat’
- ‘Thalia’
Fritillaries
- F. pallidiflora
- F. persica
- F. persica ‘Ivory Bells’
Small Bulbs and Other
- Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Violet Beauty’
- Chionoxoxa sardensis
- Galanthus elwesii
- Scilla mischtschenkoana
- Anemone blanda
- Camassia leichtlinii ‘Alba’
Imagine the floral explosion all this will create next spring! I’ll do my best to cover it on this blog – but it would be better if you visited the Lurie Garden yourself.
gardeninacity 
hurry spring 2020
Yeah!
What a great blog. I am putting my bulb order together for my own garden tonight. So It was very interesting to read the list for this garden .
Thank you! You must be in a warmer zone. If I could still plant bulbs I’d probably put in another “final” order.
That’s a lot of bulbs and it must have been a lot of work, especially dealing with the roots of grasses and shrubs. But I’d bet that the display will be beautiful and I hope you’ll be able to show it to us.
That is certainly my intention!
I just love those white tulips up against the city sky… there is something extra special about community gardens in big cities. It is great to see such a lot of volunteers of all ages… as you say it just goes to show the importance of the Lurie Gardens to the community.
I was really impressed by the number of young volunteers.
Yes …. Hope for the future..
How cool to be a part of planting for that wonderful garden. I hope to see it in bloom. If I can’t visit, I know you will post photos!
Yes I will!
I am very impressed with you volunteering. It is bad enough getting all your own bulbs planted. What a wonderful display this will be. I’m looking forward to seeing the photos.
I couldn’t resist taking part in at least a small part of the bulb planting at Lurie.
Amazing, both in scope and in scape! Congratulations on being part of such a wonderful gift to those who will gape next year. As to lying on your side, I can empathize a bit, but gardeners are nothing if not pragmatic: whatever works — and that was most certainly work!
Well, you either have to be pragmatic or walk away.
Wowsah! Nice! I can’t kneel either. Darn those creaky knees. Luckily for me, I can bend.
That is lucky. I’m not so hot at bending either.
Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to garden.
The daffodil called ‘Sailboat’ certainly caught my attention. When I saw a photo of it in bloom, I thought, “Maybe I could try some of those in a pot.” Or not. Every site I’ve looked at so far says “not in stock.” It must really be a beauty. I did find that there’s a lemon Sailboat that’s a knockout, too. I’m still undecided, but I just might.
I think most mail order for bulbs is pretty much done. You can still get Amaryllis and paperwhites, though.
That is an impressive project. So wonderful to have that many volunteers to execute it. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like in spring.
So am I!
I can’t even imagine 61,000 bulbs! You’re right–that will be quite the show next spring!
Very exciting to think about!
That is an awful lot of bulbs! Can’t wait to see the result in spring. Well done for joining in after planting all your own as well. I still have a few to get in. 🙂
Hope you get everything planted before the ground freezes,
61k bulbs? Wow! It will be spectacular!xxx
Ah, you got ‘Maureen’ tulips! It is one of my favorites, and just might be my favorite, but I do not expect anyone else to understand.
That’s one of the white ones, right? They’re definitely into white tulips at Lurie. I like them, but they’re not my favorite.
‘Maureen’ used to be the cheap and common white tulip. People tend to prefer fancier and more expensive cultivars. I think that most of the fancier types look rather strange, or are not as white. I might eventually grow some ‘Maureen’ on a small scale in my own garden, just because they are still my favorite, but they are not really the best for landscapes. White is not the best color for tulips. They look like piked eggs.