A mild-mannered hillside in Milpitas will soon — Mother Nature and ground squirrels willing — bloom with a mystery message written/planted in 6,700 tulips by The Bulb Guy, also know as Rich Santoro of San Jose.
Santoro is a man with a big bulb addiction who has been fiendishly growing bulb-born blooms for about 30 years, not only on this patch of ground in Milpitas but also at his house on Gateview Court in San Jose where, for a few days in late March, he invites the public in for free tours of thousands (11,297 to be exact — he has the receipts!) of tulips, daffodils, ranunculus, anemones, scalia, snow drops, irises, freesia “and some other stuff I can’t even spell or pronounce,” he says.
Get on his email list at rich@the-bulbguy.com and he’ll let you know when to come by.
This year, he’s bursting with joy to be the recipient of a junk-art sculpture for the garden created in his likeness by famed Sebastopol artist Patrick Amiot. Santoro expects the rendition of himself to be “somewhere between Michelangelo and Don Knotts.”
To be sure, Santoro has cultivated a flourishing sense of humor. He says the bulbs on his Milpitas hillside are loving the rain, but the ground squirrels are loving the bulbs. Someone observing the site told him the critters are swiping the bulbs and taking them to another patch of ground.
“They’re probably planting their own secret message,” he says. “I assume it says, ‘Screw the bulb guy.’”
Reading this on your phone? Stay up to date on Bay Area and Silicon Valley news with our new, free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.
