Description
Spring along the bulb fields arrives all at once, like someone flinging open a paint box. Stripes of red, yellow and violet run to the horizon, and windmills turn slowly above them. On a farmhouse step, a single old clog has been planted with tulips by a grandmother who claims shoes that walked so many miles deserve a retirement in bloom. Cyclists slow to photograph it, and she pretends not to be flattered while pruning the hedge with great concentration.
Here that delightful idea becomes a porcelain clog, its toe gently upturned and its opening filled with tulip heads in bright, mixed hues. It looks wonderful on a kitchen shelf or beside a teapot on the breakfast table. Give it to a gardener in April, a friend with Dutch roots, or someone returning from a trip to Amsterdam with stories of canals and bicycle bells.
A closer look
- A traditional Dutch clog with a softly rounded, upturned toe
- Colorful tulips cluster at the top like a little bouquet
- About 3 inches long, 1.5 inches wide and 2.25 inches high
- Opens to keep a bulb label, a charm or a tiny trinket
- Made of Limoges porcelain and hand-painted in France
- Rochard
It keeps the tulip season going long after the real blooms have faded. Set it near a sunny window in March as a promise that winter is losing the argument, or tuck a few bulbs beside it when you hand it over.
