STYLE : GARDENS : The Bulb Goes On

The late photographer George de Gennaro was known to indulge his passion for tulips, planting as many as 15,000 bulbs each fall. In the spring, most of the flowers bloomed in the canyon far below his Mandeville house. Now, thanks to Los Angeles landscape designer Chris Rosmini, more tulips are growing at the De Gennaro house, some right outside the back door.

Rosmini recontoured the slope with paths and retaining walls, creating enough space for a new bed near the study, plus a patio. Both bed and patio were finished before De Gennaro died in 1989, but the bulbs shown here were planted later by Rosmini to continue the annual garden tradition for her client’s family. She followed De Gennaro’s radical but proven method of digging out the entire bed to a depth of 10 inches, putting down an inch of sand for the bulbs to sit on, and then refilling the trench with amended soil.

Plantings include De Gennaro’s favorites, such as the orange ‘Gudoshnik,’ yellow ‘Temple of Beauty,’ red ‘Menton’ and white ‘Maureen,’ and they grow in a surprising amount of speckled shade. But then, De Gennaro knew his beloved Dutch tulips would do better without too much Southern California sun.