Jan van den Berg, Growing a Living Rainbow

Grower Jan van den Berg has been in the bulb business since he was 19.

Jan is the fourth generation of his family to work in the bulb-growing business. He took over the family business when he was just 19. Initially, there were only three varieties of bulbs being grown on the farm. But over the years the acreage has been expanded from 4 to 130 acres, and Jan now produces hundreds of varieties of tulips, daffodils, lilies and specialty bulbs.

Like many Dutch flower farmers, Jan is a breeder as well as a grower. He is currently part of a bulb-breeding cooperative that was formed to help share the cost of trialing new bulb varieties. Most bulbs—especially tulips—require decades of careful attention before a new variety is ready for market.

When the van den Berg flower fields are in bloom, Jan and his wife Truus (who manages the warehouse) walk them two or three times a day. They keep a close watch on the quality of the flowers, and are also looking for natural variations in color or form, which can lead to new varieties. Walks like this have yielded many promising finds, including a new white Muscari, which was discovered in a field growing with 200,000 standard blue seedlings. This new white Muscari should be available in about three years. Jan is currently working to develop several new varieties of Triteleia-Brodiaea. The flower colors are now mostly blue, and he would like to find other colors such as pink, yellow, and white. This year, Dutch Gardens is offering one of his newest introductions: the Ice Cream Tulip. Next up is a new lily for growing in pots that will be called Souvenir.

Dutch Gardens is proud to offer many top-quality bulbs that are grown on the van den Berg farm, including: Barbados and Cummins tulips, Tête-à-Tête daffodils, Grecian Windflowers (Anemone blanda), and Guinea Hen Flowers (Fritillaria melegaris).