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!