Tulips
My very favorite flower.
Princess Irene
This was not my best year for tulips. I think the warm winter didn’t allow them time to fully develop: some of them came up quickly, were short and stumpy, or had flower heads that were much too heavy and large for the stem. Not sure.
However, yes, I did get some really nice shots of those that flowered and put on quite a show!
The next four shots are
Tulip Blumex Favorite from Wayside Gardens
Ok, I have to admit, they were pretty stunning! And mixed in there is the
Triumph Princess Irene from Terra Ceia.
These next three pictures are
Sensual Touch from Burpee
These bloomed very late, well after all the others, and were definitely stunted in growth. Short stems with bulbous flower heads….not quite what I had been expecting! But yes, they make great photo subjects.
Here are some of the Blumex tulips, fading as cut flowers. I tend to love tulips as they fade and droop: what fabulous photo subjects they make!
As you can see, my color story this year was variations on orange… maybe no big surprise there. So, what for next year? I’ve already made note of two new (to me) tulips from different people I follow on Instagram and who live in Europe. So I’ve bookmarked those pages. I am thinking of lots and lots of pinks and some really dark purple (Queen of Night?) mixed in.
If you are wondering what will happen to all these bulbs if I plant more next year…well, I treat tulips as annuals. Each May I pull up ALL the tulips I had planted, and yes, I start again in the fall. There are several reasons I do this:
1. I like to plan the new color scheme for the following year
2. I do not want to have the foliage yellowing in the garden for a month or two
3. When I plant throughout the late spring and summer, both perennials and annuals, I do not want to dig into the bulbs.
It’s just much easier, and cleaner, to start fresh.
If we go back in time for some color perspective you can see last year, 2018:
And two years ago, in 2017:
So maybe it really is time for some pink once again!
As you can see, I’ve started to look and plan and bookmark. After all, planning is half the fun.
That’s it for the tulips for this year….see you next year with more!
They look outstanding to me! Love the Princess Irene.
Beautiful!
We’re still waiting for all the snow to melt up here in East Alaska (NH).
Many thanks for posting your beautiful tulips!
I love tulips there are my favourite flower in spring it was a treat to see your lovely varieties. The Blumex are stunning in the garden and in the vase! The gardening programme on tv this weekend showed tulips that had being dug up replanted in wild grassland the following the year, there was such a mix of colours but it still looked beautiful. Thank you for joining in again this month in ‘ Through the Garden Gate’ and sharing these special flowers with us. Look at ideas for tulip colour combinations with Sarah Raven.
Thanks for the Sarah Raven suggestion..do you know, or get, these updates: http://digdelve.com/tulips-2019/ Last week was all about tulips and some very fine colors I have bookmarked! I like the idea of digging them up and replanting: the only problem is that deer would devour them anywhere except within my gated area!