August vacation and bulb preview

My August vacation time is almost over. I ventured to my usual far-away gardening center today to see if they were already selling tulip bulbs and what varieties would those be this year. Well, they were selling but only a few, inside their old store which they've recently reorganized - furnished, stocked with new items and began calling a gallery. The outside bulb stand - which was upgraded last year and received a thatched roof - was only being stocked and the stock price tagged as I watched. They will be selling many more varieties, and some at lower prices than the gallery, there as of Monday.

I bought some orangy-red fosteriana tulips Juan, some orange Kaufmanniana tulips Shakespeare, some crocuses and I splashed on alliums - five bulbs of the purple flowering variety Gladiator, and three of the white flowering Mount Everest. The alliums still seemed expensive but, surprisingly, the price went down 30% since last year. I also bought three pots of hosta plantaginea bearing the most wonderfully scented white flowers! I've never seen a fragrant hosta before, and rightly so, upon researching back home I learned they are a rarity among the genus. The scent is gorgeous, heady and intoxicating. I might be back there tomorrow because only upon returning home I realized I had seen bags of Orange Princess tulips hanging right in front of me but got distracted and didn't buy them.

Needless to say, I'll have to add new entries to my list of monthly expenses: amounts spent on tulip bulbs, smaller bulbs and garden soil. I sincerely hope to keep the amounts reasonable.

Fosteriana tulips Flaming Purissima and Sweetheart

Both varieties have been in bloom for a couple of days now. And I've had the very same bulbs for at least for four years now (that is, the year-to-year descendants of the same bulbs). They have been moved from their original spots two years ago and it's their second spring in the current spot.

I'm amazed because they've actually multiplied in the sandy soil of my garden, particularly the Flaming Purissimas. They were taller and had much bigger flowers when still residing in the rich leafy soil under the trees, however here, in the open spot next to the house, their petals are more pink. They are the second tulip to bloom this spring, after the greigii tulip Toronto, which bloomed on April 9th.


On cloudy days the flowers remain closed.

Christmas

After a week of severe frost a couple of days ago today we've been enjoying a day of 10 C, apparently a single spring-like day at the very beginning of the actual winter. Amazingly warm and no wind whatsoever. I managed to plant fifteen bulbs of Pink Impression tulips. With leaves almost 2 inches tall, the bulbs were somewhat dry, so I'm curious if they will produce flowers. I also planted one bulb of giant allium, in a bit of half shade I'm afraid, so I also wonder if I'll see it flower. And I cleaned about a dozen huge clay pots in which I grow seasonal flowers. I brought them inside the house because I was afraid they'd crack if major frosts return in January and February.

I'm behind with so much home and garden work this fall. At work, I've been requested to submit my vacation plans for the following year by the end of December. I guess that's what stimulated me to step outside and tackle some of the work immediately. While planning yesterday I realized how much needs to be done and how little time combined with favorable weather and unpredictable circumstances (although I sincerely hope there will be no such circumstances next year!) I will have to accomplish it. I'm so glad I've got some of the work done today.

Parrot tulip Estella Rijnveld

I can't believe I have not posted pictures of the single best of my tulips this year. First waiting for them to finish flowering, so that I could sum up their peformance, and then amidst the turmoil of the most unfortunate month of June I had, I simply forgot.

I mentioned planting them last fall and you might have thought they didn't come up. Oh no. Estella Rijnveld, aka Gay Presto, developed handsome buds in the first week of May,

opened its flowers in the second,

and bloomed until the end of the month, when the rains and wind finally helped it drop its gorgeous petals.

The tulip is not very tall and doesn't even look much like a tulip, especially from a couple of yards away and to the unsuspecting eye. But belive me it is fabulous. The red and white of the flowers looked so crisp and refreshing! They literally sparkled in the morning shade of the spot where I had planted them.

Fascinated by the color and shape of the petals, I spent many minutes crawling in the grass to take pictures. I kept peeking at them through the window. I simply couldn't get enough of them!

The flowers are quite large and resistant to the elements - a mere rain doesn't harm them at all. They just dry off and keep turning their heads to follow the sun whenever it shows again.

Sturdy and beautiful, Estella Rijnveld is worth every penny it costs. Which is twice as much as the more common tulips. A true feast to the eyes. I can't say how well it returns because I've enjoyed it for the first time this spring. But I'll definitely be buying it again.

Parrot tulip Rococo

First time I've tried this variety. I hesitated whether to buy them or not because they are both red, which I'm not crazy about, and parrot, which means they grow short and twisted and never return after the first year. I finally decided to only plant a few and try them as an accent close to the path. It turns out they are lovely!

The color is velvety fire engine red with some yellow visible inside - almost like flames - when strong sun shines on the flower, while the outside of the petals has an equally velvety purplish tint. I have them planted in dappled shade, which was a truly brilliant idea, because it brings out the colors just enough to make them shine instead of dulling them the way strong sun does.

The shape of the flowers is fascinating and gorgeous from every angle. Opulent, yet elegant, this tulip is definitely a keeper.

Parrot tulip Erna Lindgreen

First time in my garden. The picture was taken at dusk, so there's a tad too much blue in it but the color is not affected beyond recognition. Contrary to what I read on the web, Erna is a deep, bright, perhaps slightly reddish pink and not a red tulip. The flowers are cup-shaped with only slightly irregular edges of petals, so the overall impression is more of a Triumph, or perhaps a modest double tulip rather than a parrot one. The inside of the flower is adorned with a blue stripe encircling the bottom.

Erna is quite short, has strong stems and flowers early. The pictures were taken on May 3rd and they are of the last tulip remaining. A late bloomer, it is somewhat smaller than the ones that have already faded. It doesn't truly reflect how attractive they all looked in full bloom - in a bare April garden, they stood out like bright colored roses.

Tulip Blushing Lady

Water and watch it grow twice as tall as other tulips!


Blushing Lady and Toyota

A Darwin Hybrid. The tallest of all flowers in my garden, including perennial sunflowers.. perhaps excluding the Jerusalem artichoke. They must be about three feet tall and are visible from quite a distance.

The flowerheads are initially small and pale colored, but with time they grow to size L and develop the most lovely deep pastel shades you'd expect from a ripe peach - yellow melting with pink and hints of orange. They are spectacular, even though they tend to crawl like snakes if the spring is very windy. They are completely charming even then. I remember I had to tie them to supports last year, this year, however, we have had drought and truly summer temperatures almost without wind, and they are doing just great. The flowers open towards the sun, but they don't go completely flat, which I don't find attractive, they remain cup-shaped.

At dusk they close tightly.

Second year in the ground without being lifted.

Tulip Marilyn

One of my long time favorites, with large white lily-shaped flowers striped pink. Quite tall but not too thin, it definitely deserves its name - it's just sexy. Pictured growing in my front bed with Elegant Lady and Blue Heron. All of them second or third year in the same spot without being lifted.

Tulip Ballerina

They are very reliable and tend to come back well, or even naturalize. It's at least their third year in the same spot and there are only a couple fewer than I originally planted. A bit smaller, I admit. But if I took proper care of them, such as kept watering, weeding and fertilizing, they'd probably multiply. The spot where they grow is partially shaded, extremely dry and almost never watered. They share it with iris pallida.

They start out orange and develop the red and yellow as they mature but remain thin and delicate, as many lily-flowered tulips are.

Tulip Daydream

This variety is famous for changing color from medium yellow to flaming shades of orange. I discovered it while browsing pictures of tulip plantings at Chenies Manor House and then, in the fall, stumbled upon it at the garden center.

Indeed, it does change color but it cannot really compete with either Orange Emperor or the below mentioned unknown pink Darwin tulip because it is shorter than both of them. Unfortunately, I didn't know that and I planted it right at their back, where it remains largely hidden from view. Well, I can only count this as its trial year.

I also didn't realize the Orange Emperor, being a fosteriana tulip, would be that tall. They are over two feet tall, almost exactly twenty six inches. It's quite incredible but, considering both their bright color and height, they would be best planted in a separate group away from other varieties. I made the picture small because I only managed to take it when the tulips were already fading. They are actually toast from the drought by today and need to be deadheaded.

Mislabeled Fosteriana tulips

Another, luckily the last, case of mislabeled tulips I acquired last September, this time at a large chain home and garden supply store. These were labeled as fosteriana Orange Breeze, which means they were supposed to be as orange as young carrots, with some green on the outside of petals. I trustingly planted them next to their equally orange sister variety fosteriana Orange Emperor and the yellow-turning-to-orange Daydream, in my yellow and orange bed.

Well, you can see for yourself what has come up. Judging from the shape of the flowers, they are not even fosteriana tulips, and they are thoroughly pink, with a mere hint of orange. Actually, they are very beautiful, and I'm glad I now have them. I just have to remove them from the yellow area of the garden. Since they are tall and fat with very large flowers, I suspect they are one of the Darwin or cottage varieties.

The striped one is the queer one of the bunch, and also the prettiest. I am afraid that the stripes originate from a virus, though, and that I should get rid of this beauty rather than allow it to grow. I read that the virus spreads readily and would ultimately destroy other tulips.

Mislabeled Rembrandt tulip

I bought these last September labeled, no less, as the gorgeous purple flamed white tulip Zurel. There were only two or three packs left on the store rack and I took two of them - ten tulips. I was really excited because I had not expected I'd find this relatively new variety locally, and I've continued to look forward to finally seeing them in my own garden for months.

And what do you know. For the past couple of days I've been waiting for the purple to show because I noticed the flowers were just about to open. Something only seemed to be wrong with the leaves, namely their white edge, which I didn't think belonged to this variety. Alas. This morning, while taking pictures to document my tulips before they fade, it finally struck me that these are not Zurel. There is no bold purple flame, there's only a red and very delicate one. Combined with the white variegation on the leaves, it can only mean one thing. They are Happy Generation. How disappointing. Especially that I already have a bunch of Happy Generation growing merely a few yards away, where I planted it two years ago.

And I bought these tulips from one of the most respectable suppliers in town. Frankly, I didn't expect they'd sell mislabeled bulbs. It's the first time ever I've had what can be called a bad experience with them.

I'm still on the lookout for the glamorous Zurel. I've just checked madame Miho's blog and discovered that she also planted them this year (either that or in 2007, I can't be sure because her blog is in Japanese). Clearly got more lucky than I did. I can't link directly but see pics in her Garden Diary under April 30th, 2009. I think she has them planted with Arabian Mystery (also a very appealing tulip, albeit on the short side) and Black Hero, which I mentioned in my previous post. Check out how gorgeous they look. I'll definitely be buying them again this fall.

Black tulips

Tulip Queen of the Night with euphorbia polychroma, catmints and iris in the front bed of my garden here in the city. The iris is yet to bloom, as well as the huge catmint, the lower part of which is visible behind the euphorbia. The small catmints are beginning to bloom already. The tulips are there their third year, so only a few flowers remain, and they are about half as tall as they used to be. Interestingly, the flowerheads are not much smaller.

I originally planted Queen of the Night there along with its sport, the double black tulip Black Hero, and they looked really classy with the chartreuse flowers of the euphorbia, against the background of the emerging golden hops and prairie cordgrass. But, despite its name, Black Hero is not a sturdy tulip. It hardly came back in its second year, and no trace remains of it in the third. (Also, its flowerheads are quite small, which is usually not stated in nursery catalogs, so it is best viewed from up close.)

Picture taken this morning past 9 a.m.

First tulips

tulipa greigii Toronto

These are the first tulips to bloom in my city garden this year. They've already been in flower for a good couple of days. I took the picture before 7 a.m. yesterday, trying to capture the color, that's why the flowers are closed. Normally, they open very wide during the day, however, in full sun the color looks completely different. They appear coral red, while I prefer the nice shade of pink visible in the morning light. Unlike the majority of tulips, this variety tends to produce more than one flower per a bulb - notice that some bulbs have two headed stems. They were very accessibly priced when I bought them last September, so if I find them again this fall, I may also be planting some at the farm for next spring.

Tulip day

sprouted Foster tulips

I finally managed to get some tulips I had sitting around and then sprouting in their baskets, into the ground. I cannot think of an excuse why I did it so late this year. I sort of kept looking at them thinking they could wait one or two more days without realizing that two months have actually passed.

The late ones were quite fine, Estella Rijnveld a.k.a. Gay Presto and Rococo only had one or two sprouts. Unfortunately, I also had some early Foster tulips waiting and almost all of them had inch long thick sprouts which looked as if there were flowerbuds inside. I took me a while to plant those, I must have had around sixty bulbs of differing sizes since I've had them for two years already and they multiplied. They multiply very well by the way, so they are worth trying if you want a show that lasts more than one season for your money. They are absolutely guaranteed to return, provided that you give them the right conditions, in particular don't cause them to rot by watering in the summer. I hope at least some of them bloom because they have the most gorgeous huge white petals which are visible from quite a distance. Last year I had them perfectly planted well away from the house, in the rich leafy soil under old trees, and they looked spectacular. So good in fact that I had some stolen so this year I moved them close to the house. I think the effect will not be as good. Being white, they are best planted in half-shade or against a dark background, and there's none of that close to the house. But instead they will have company of several orange Foster tulips I planted earlier this fall, so maybe they'll blend in somehow. I'll post pics in the second or third week of April when I expect them to bloom.

I also planted sixteen multiflowered early Greigii tulips Toronto, somewhat sprouted. Now I'm left with only five more varieties to plant, of which only one - Foster Zombie - is newly purchased, the rest are smaller bulbs I dug up from last year's beds, which will produce flowers of lesser value anyway.

I must buy fewer tulips next fall. I hate to see some of them almost go to waste because I don't get around to planting them in time. I'm still experimenting with varieties, figuring out which I like and which grow well, but my intention is to narrow the number of varieties and buy more of each, so that I can plant larger groups. While some people consider buying tulips extravagant, I think they are worth the expense because they fill the garden with gorgeous color one full month before the perennials. I also plain love so many of them, especially the tall cottage tulips and late tulips, in general, which I think come in the most gorgeous colors and shapes. Pics expected in May.