The bulb grower spreading floral positivity during lockdown | My Garden Path | Gardening Australia

We meet specialist bulb grower Tim Drewitt, who responded to Covid lockdowns by gifting some garden joy. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
Drewitt’s Bulbs is a nursery that was started by the parents of the current owner, Tim Drewitt. They originally sold daffodils via mail order, putting out the first colour nursery mail order catalogue. They’re now retired and Tim Drewitt has been at the helm for 17 years. He’s been growing plants and selling at markets since he was 10 years old.
Drewitts focuses on mostly bulbs, offering over 1000 products and almost every kind and variety of bulb you could ever think of. They sell over 500000 bulbs every year, supplying to independent nurseries and chain corporations.
Tim says that Covid meant “we couldn’t sell anything, around 200 nurseries dropped their orders. It hit us hard”. Tim was “sitting there looking at stock going past their best” and decided to turn a “negative into a positive.”
They took this stock (mostly daffodils) and dropped it in the letterboxes and beside car doors of locals, as a free flowering gift he calls “a random act of kindness”. “We left a note so they would know it wasn’t an accident”. Over 4500 plants went out.
Tim is also a qualified youth worker and is the head of student welfare at a local school where he got the kids involved in the program. “It was to teach the kids it’s better to give than receive, and about thinking outwards rather than inwards during hard times.”
Tim says the work at the nursery is “constantly changing”. Bulbs are grown to multiply, lifted, divided, cleaned and dried, packed for sale and replanted at varying stages of the year depending on the species. To achieve this, they have specialist machinery.
Tim’s Bulb Tips:
Feed and water while the bulb is going dormant, as that is when next year’s flower is forming.
One area of bulbs that’s often overlooked is summer-flowering bulbs (Dec-March). He says by planting these as well as the more familiar spring flowering bulbs, you can expect flowering right through the year. Summer flowering bulbs include hippeastrums, lilliums, gladioli and dahlias.
Not all bulbs need to be dug up and replanted each year. “Tulips you can dig up and replant in a warmer climate, but it’s not really necessary. I’ve had them in the ground now for 9 years.”
Lilliums have a perennial root system, so even while they’re dormant, they’re still feeding with their roots. If you leave them in the ground…in the second year you can have a plant to 3 metres tall with 20-30 flowers.
Tim points out modern pollen and scent free lilliums as a new development. “It means people with allergies can enjoy them, and they still have the nectar for pollinators”. But he says the heritage varieties offer the complete opposite appeal “you can’t beat their strong smell!”
Featured Plant:
LILIUM - Lilium cv.
Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Silvan, Vic
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[@seanjamescameron]

We are in Winter here in the UK, it's so nice to see the colour of these bulbs.

[@trabasstrabass9363]

Congratulations, beautiful gesture. 👏👏👏

[@rickwarner516]

Thank you for sharing this Tim

[@Melanieallen968]

Beautiful!

[@razasyeda6054]

Lovely 😍

[@amirkin651]

wow 🤩

[@jsephhd]

i really love these stories very inspiring

[@GardeningAustralia]

We're so glad you like them! Thanks for watching.

[@RuralRuins]

It's incredibly sad to see what his own govt is doing to him and all the other Aussies. We're pulling for you and your beautiful family, Tim. 💐

[@KitchenGardeningwithMe]

Beautiful video🌺👍 🥰

[@GardeningAustralia]

Thanks for watching!

[@v.mishrasart43]

Very nice👍👍

[@ksenijavojisavljevic2034]

Happy New Year and the best wishes for the business in the future..... Can I please have one question: I like lilies , but have pets and little kids areound. Are they , in a reality , so poisonous and dangerous as the books say? How much of impact does realy have the pouder ? Thank you! 🤗

[@sarahlatham2785]

I'm a veterinarian and can confirm lilies are high toxic to cats, ingesting a small amount can send them into acute renal failure which is not a simple thing to treat. I don't know about children but wouldn't recommend lilies in areas cats can get to.

[@ksenijavojisavljevic2034]

@@sarahlatham2785 Oh, sounds scary....