Anna Pavord on her new book, Bulb

I promised a blogpost on Anna Pavord's talk at the Garden Museum on October 1 and hey, presto, 14 days later, here it is!

Anna was talking about her new book, Bulb, which took her four years to write, and you can see why - it's an erudite, beautiful piece of work that deserves to be pored over on many a cold winter's evening to come. The talk was full of gems - her bulb planting mix recipe (two scoops of John Innes no 3 to one scoop of 6ml grit), what bulbs to pick ("the simplest route to growing bulbs is to find out what likes you and grow lots of it"), and her description of Narcissus cyclamineus as looking "like a surprised piglet caught in the wind".

What was most reassuring to me was her emphasis on the importance of remembering that it is an "unreal expectation" to asume a bulb will flower every year: even in optimal conditions in the wild, many only bloom sporadically. So it may not be your fault when your tulips don't come back year after year! If you want to get more of a flavour of what she said, read this piece in the Independent. Here she is above signing copies of her book after the talk.

I was so inspired I went straight home and planted loads of bulbs the following weekend, and ordered many more. Incredibly, I've never grown paperwhite narcissus, so I'll be giving those a try for the first time this year, and using this top tip of giving the bulbs a nip of vodka to stop them falling over (funny, that - it's the reverse in humans!) And whatever the Garden Monkey says, I'll be growing some hyacinths (white ones, probably) because I like them, and that's that.

Also in the audience were the garden designers Dan Pearson (who I'd never met before) and Cleve West (who I already know), and I got to meet Christopher Woodward, the Garden Museum director, in person for the first time. Have a look at the Guardian gardening blog for my post on the museum's latest exhibition, The Good Life: 100 Years of Growing Your Own.

Comments

[VP]

I saw her at The Cheltenham Literature Festival on Monday and she was fab. Andrew Lawson was in the audience, so we also got an insight into the photography side of the book, such as the lack of places available to take shots of some of the bulbs, them not flowering on the scheduled photo shoot day at Wisley etc etc.

I liked the last line of her talk - 'Splurge, it's the only way'.

It seems you've taken them to heart already :)

[Woody Wilbury]

The Garden Museum is fabulous. I was there in the summer with a film crew for the about-to-launch (in two weeks time) David Douglas film. We filmed at the Tradescant tomb just outside. The churchyard is an amazing place; also contains, from memory, the tomb of Capt Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty), 6 Archbishops of Canterbury and the grandmother of the first Queen Elizabeth.

[bangchik]

Bulbs are interesting to grow. If plants has brains, these plants receive instructions from an inch under the soil surface , from the bulb. The action to produce baby bulbs also happen in the soil.... ~bangchik

[Charlotte]

Thanks so much for this - a really interesting post! I do agree with other commentators that The Garden Museum is fabulous - such a find in such an unusual place.

[elizabethm]

This was my birthday present book! It looks wonderful, feels great, and keeps making me reread something I have read already, it is so densely packed. A bit like a bulb, I suppose. Fabulous.

[Mal]

Read her "Naming of Names" as my annual book and she is a goddess. But I have to admit that I am a vegetable grower so bulbs have less of a draw... But thanks for posting.