Everyone in the world seems to be reading Marie Kondo\u2019s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Its de-cluttering message has almost certainly gladdened the hearts and fattened the inventories of recyclers, thrift shop owners and second hand book dealers from Memphis to Mumbai. I read it over the summer and it made me think seriously about my habit of hanging on to things that no longer matter. Though \u201ctidying up\u201d is at the heart of Kondo\u2019s book, the larger message is about happiness. By giving or throwing away anything that doesn\u2019t bring you joy, you free up not only your living space but you psyche. This is very appealing, as I am afflicted with an overflowing house and a cluttered psyche.
\nNow, as I start the annual fall bulb order, I think about the choices that will bring joy to my garden. I have come face to face with the idea that my landscape could use a little of the author\u2019s \u201cKonMari\u201d tidying up method. When fall clean-up gets underway, I will be more mindful of which plants \u201cspark joy\u2019 and make an effort to grub out those that don\u2019t. That includes marginal plants that I have kept on tending, despite the fact that they are either poorly sited or just not disposed to thrive in my particular location.
\nClean-up hasn\u2019t really started yet, but it is time to get the bulb orders in while there is still a decent selection. Using joy as a rationale for my choices, I turn first to plants that have worked exceptionally well in the past. The little iris, \u2018Katherine Hodgkin\u2019, at four inches tall, with aquamarine petals, accented with yellow blotches and dark stripes and speckles, is at the top of the list. Seeing a single \u2018Katherine\u2019 in a garden is a revelation, but it really takes many more to create an inspiring effect. Fortunately, the bulbs are sufficiently cheap that even I can make a splashy show with them. I\u2019ll order fifty.
\nBlues and yellows make my heart sing, as do hyacinths. \u2018City of Haarlem\u2019 is a soft yellow-flowered variety from 1893 that is still in commerce. I think I\u2019ll pair it with \u2018Grand Monarque\u2019, an even older\u20141863\u2014variety with lush, medium blue flowerheads. I\u2019ll get three of each and plant them in the new blue and yellow-themed garden area, carved out of a spot that formerly housed a dowdy yew that gave me absolutely no joy. The hyacinths will also be close to a path, so the joy of their fragrance will not be lost on garden visitors.
\nTulips are a conundrum. They definitely give me joy, except when they are eaten by Mr. Antlers and his family, which gives me misery. I spray them with deer repellent, of course, but sometimes that is not enough. The only solution is to grow them in pots on my porch. Even the tallest, most nimble deer can\u2019t climb up a full flight of steps\u2014I hope\u2014so I can enjoy my tulips without worry. A friend always gets a blue and white tulip mix, which I love. Since she is not buying it this year, I will do so, mixing blue-purple tulips with white ones, like the purple-flamed \u2018Insulide\u2019 and lily-flowered \u2018White Triumphator\u2019, both of which are late bloomers. \u2018Black Parrot\u2019, which is actually darkest purple, is another compatible late bloomer.
\nMy many existing daffodils give me joy as well, but a good number of the clumps still need dividing to keep the joy going. I vowed to do this last spring, but events intervened, keeping me from going to work with the spade and garden knife. Dividing in the fall is harder, because you have to locate the clumps, but I might actually get the chore done in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I\u2019ll order my favorite daffodil, \u2018Beersheeba\u2019 which is the most elegant bloomer, with an elongated ivory trumpet surrounded by petals of the same shade. It also makes a great cut flower. I also love \u2018Daphne\u2019, a fragrant double \u201cpheasant eye\u201d-type that is positively frilly-looking.
\nOf course, amassing additional bulbs seems contrary to Marie Kondo\u2019s \u201cless is more\u201d philosophy. However, once the bulb orders are in, I\u2019ll also have an added impetus to do lots of garden tidying in the weeks before the bulbs arrive. Some things, like rambunctious tansy, thuggish English ivy and similar weak or ill-bred plants are going to go, leaving empty spaces in their wake. As everyone knows, there is nothing that sparks joy in a gardener\u2019s heart like empty space and a few dollars in the checking account.
\nFind a wonderful assortment of joy-inducing heirloom bulb varieties at Old House Gardens, 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103, (734) 995-1486, www.oldhousegardens.com. Catalog $2.00. More joy is available from John Scheepers, 23 Tulip Drive, P.O. Box 638, Bantam, CT 06750, (860) 567-5323. Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone in the world seems to be reading Marie Kondo\u2019s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Its de-cluttering message has almost certainly gladdened the hearts and fattened the inventories of recyclers, thrift shop owners and second hand book dealers from Memphis to Mumbai. I read it over … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[1257,295,276,267,1256,1157,1254,1255,275],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","tag-beersheba","tag-bulbs","tag-daffodils","tag-fall-gardening","tag-heirloom-bulbs","tag-katherine-hodgkin","tag-marie-kondo","tag-rock-garden-iris","tag-tulips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1422,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/1422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}