The natural way to grow tulips—insider tips from garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet

When three friends came upon an old fortress site protected by embankments, they knew they had found the perfect place to bring their dreams to life. Having studied garden and landscape architecture together, Jacqueline van der Kloet, Stan Gall and Niek Roozen, not only wanted to move to the location by River Vecht, but also to establish a small nursery and a garden that would stand out from the more formal style popular in the Netherlands at the time. Inspired by English gardens, their verdant oasis was completed in 1986 and named De Theetuin, or Tea Garden.

The gracefully curving tulips with their slender flowers match the natural look of the planting areas. Alongside the ‘Jacqueline’ and ‘Mariette’ lily-flowering tulips, there are bigroot geraniums, columbines, and calamints. The building is used as a workspace and for overwintering tender plants.

Jacqueline has a separate area where she tests new varieties at the request of local tulip producers. She offers feedback on their durability, among other things. The varieties currently being tested are now in their third consecutive year of flowering.

The ammunition depot, built in 1875, was converted into a charming tea room that also serves lunch. Today, it’s run by the son of one of the original owners.

The basic design of the garden, which is located in the city of Weesp, right next to Amsterdam, has stayed the same from the beginning. The planting areas have evolved, and the best plants have been discovered through trial and error. Although the garden, which is open to the public, covers just 1,000 square meters, it’s cleverly designed to feel larger than it is.

“The garden doesn’t reveal itself at a single glance. You have to walk around and discover it for yourself,” Jacqueline says.

In the middle, an oval area outlined by thuja blocks the view to the rest of the garden and encloses a softly babbling water feature and a seating area. The atmosphere is tangibly tranquil. The thujas have been pruned into an asymmetrical, undulating shape. Although the garden has been carefully planned, serendipity also has its place.

“I might not have chosen thuja myself, but we got them as a gift from a friend. One winter, the snow bent them into this shape. I liked the flowing lines and kept pruning them so the shape would remain.”

Because the garden’s plant scheme was designed by Jacqueline, the place became her calling card: she could invite clients over to see her planting style firsthand.

You enter the garden through a beech arch. The self-seeding forget-me-nots can be found all around. On the left, bigroot geranium covers the ground, and behind it grows the wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae. The daffodils have mostly finished blooming, but on the right, the white ‘Sailboat’ variety is still in flower. In the back on the left, you can see the undulating shapes of the thuja enclosure. Jacqueline has also written a book about the garden, A year in my garden.

In the area outlined by thujas, you can retreat into perfect tranquility. The soft, green walls shut out the spectrum of colors, and the soundscape is made up of trickling water and birdsong. The edges of the water feature are built with reclaimed bricks from an old mill. There is a strip of gravel between the thujas and the water feature, allowing you to walk around it.

The friends wanted to have winding paths that looked as natural as possible. They made the base with rubble and sand, then topped it with a thin layer of gravel. Every three or four years, the paths get a fresh layer of gravel. Stray seedlings along the edges are removed by hand or with a torch. The round shrub in front of the entrance to the thuja enclosure is Choisya ternata ‘White Dazzler.’ In the foreground on the right, a cushion spurge is in bloom.

Even though Jacqueline’s first love was perennials, she has specialized in flower bulbs. Over her long career, she has designed bulb plant schemes for countless gardens in the Netherlands and around the world, including Keukenhof, the garden of Martha Stewart’s New York home, and in collaboration with Piet Oudolf, the Lurie Garden in Chicago.

Jacqueline has wanted to incorporate tulips into a more natural planting style, which is evident in the Tea Garden in April.

She is known for her method of ‘sprinkling’ tulips throughout the beds. In practice, the bulbs are tossed onto the planting area and planted exactly where they land.

“That way, the tulips aren’t all in one block; some end up close together, while others stand apart. The result is a naturalistic effect,” Jacqueline explains.

Jacqueline uses an abundance of color, but each planting area has its own main colors: there are yellow–orange, red–white, pink–white, pink–purple, and in shady spots, white areas.

The shaped shrubs and the multi-stemmed trees bring contrast and height to the loose, sprawling plantings. The pale yellow ‘World Friendship’ Darwin hybrid tulip appears in several spots around the garden. The red-flowered spurge in the foreground is ‘Firecracker.’ Nearby are the biennial perfoliate Alexanders, hellebore, and oxlip. The David statue—a gift from a friend—was placed in a playful way to peer over the beech hedges. The hedge separates Jacqueline’s and the other residents’ private gardens from the garden open to the public.

If Jacqueline had to pick her favorite tulip, it would be ‘Leo.’ The petals of this intriguing variety look like they’ve been snipped with scissors. This Darwin hybrid has perennialized in the Tea Garden. It used to be difficult to obtain, but now it can be found in Dutch online shops.

Jacqueline usually doesn’t favor large-flowered tulips, but paired with the ‘Overdam’ feather reed-grass, they still fit the natural look. The yellow Darwin hybrid ‘Jewel of Spring’ and the white ‘Purissima’ from the Fosteriana group are both reliable bloomers.

When Jacqueline and her friends ran a nursery here, this space was used to sell garden ornaments and pots. Later, they planted species that would thrive under the large beech: bigroot geranium, lilyturf, stinking hellebore, and Welsh poppy. As for bulbs, woodland crocus and grape hyacinth shine here in spring, and the Bieberstein's crocus ‘Conqueror’ in fall. All bulb flowers spread by self-seeding.

Multi-stemmed trees create layers in the garden. Many of them are actually shrubs, such as the ‘Royal Purple’ smoke bushes by the sunny wall. Jacqueline prunes their lower branches twice a year. The lime-green tone of the Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii) works perfectly with the ‘Bud Light’ lily-flowering tulips, the tall ‘World of Friendship’ Darwin hybrids, and the pale yellow primroses that self-seed all over the garden.

Over the decades, Jacqueline has planted thousands of tulips in the garden, but she doesn’t need to do that anymore - the same carefully chosen tulips bloom year after year, and she never lifts the bulbs out of the ground.

She has clear tips for gardeners who want their tulips to perennialize: First, the soil must be well-draining to prevent the bulbs from rotting. Jacqueline improved the clay-based soil in her garden with both sand and compost. You have to choose the right species and varieties to plant (for example, Darwin hybrids), and the bulbs should be planted deep, around 15–20 centimeters. One of the most important steps is to remove spent flowers but leave the leaves and stems to wither naturally, so the tulip can use them to gather energy in the bulb for the following year’s bloom.

‘Peppermint Stick’ is a new discovery for many visitors, according to Jacqueline. She finds the delicate look of this lady tulip enchanting. It is also one of the garden’s most reliable tulips—one whose flowering can be enjoyed year after year.

For perennials, Jacqueline has chosen plants that will cover the withering bulb foliage with lush greenery. She recommends early risers like Siberian bugloss, lungworts, columbines, and cranesbills. In the background, the embankments encircle the garden and hint at its history as a fortress. Today, sheep graze on the embankments, which also host beehives for a local honey producer.

Chinese pearl shrub Exochorda racemosa grows in a container year-round. The arching branches of the shrub are incredibly beautiful.

Striped squill (Puschkinia) blooms along the edge of the garden in a broad carpet.

Dog's-tooth violet (Erythronium) is a charming little sight.

‘World Friendship’ Darwin hybrid tulips delight visitors near the garden entrance, among other spots.