Six on Saturday 20th April – Tulips


Tulip Ballerina
As the tulips are coming into their own this week I thought I would have a tulip special for Six on Saturday.
Tulip Ballerina grows in the front garden and is very slowly naturalising. I planted the bulbs some years back now and each year they appear although I’m not convinced they are multiplying that quickly more a case of coming back year on year and they do seem to have longer stems now. Today with the sun shining they look quite magical.

Tulip Blue Diamond
Another front garden tulip this year is Tulip Blue Diamond which was in a collection pack from Peter Nyssen. This year is the first year for a few years where I have made a conscious effort to add tulips to the borders. I used to grow quite a few but the year we had the really hard winter I discovered that the “cute” badger who had decided to visit our garden looking for food had a weakness for tulips and all my bulbs were eaten. As we haven’t seen the badgers for a few years now I decided to have another go and the effort is certainly rewarding me.

Tulip Spring Green
Tulip White Parrot seems to be a later tulip. Here it is growing amongst some Camassias which will be flowering in the next week or so. You will see in due course that I have quite a swathe of Camassias in the middle of my garden which have increased year on year to the point where I seriously need to think about dividing them but I will save that until next week.
Another rogue tulip – I think it is meant to be Tulip Elegant Lady which is a pale pink. This flower reminds me of someone not mixing the paint properly. I think it has a rather distinctive charm about it.

Tulip Princess Irene
Tulip Princess Irene is another tulip which comes back year on year. I think it is one of the nicest oranges and works well with so many other flowers especially reds and burgundys

Tulip China Town
Tulip Chinatown has been delighting me for weeks even though it hasn’t flowered yet. I love its glaucous variegated foliage. The tulip will be pink so it should be quite wonderful.
I will definitely be planting more tulips next year and looking forward to seeing which ones come back up from this year.
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I love your rogue tulip and agree the scarlet sash is very distinctive.
Beautiful tulips.
Sure sign of Spring.
Beautiful tulips!
I think the Darwin tulips are supposed to be the most reliably perennial
That white one with the red part reminds me the movie ‘Less Than Zero’ (which is a very sad movie that I do not recommend). Julian wore a white shirt with what seemed to be a poinsettia on it. We never figured out what that flower thing was.
Some great Tulips there. I have Princess Irene and it is a beauty to be sure….
I love ‘Ballerina’, I planted some 18 months ago and a few more last Autumn, they’re on the way up, but I’m not convinced any of the original batch are repeating!
It’s probably too soon for the first batch to repeat. Tulip bulbs die after flowering but they produce side bulbs which bulk up and then flowers so over time the amount increases
The sunlight through the petals is rather magical, isn’t it!
That rogue tulip is fascinating. I thought a red tulips was hiding behind the white one at first!
Gorgeous tulips! Such a sign of spring!
Lovely. I am a big fan of tulips. I am also enjoying them in my borders for the first time this year. I will leave them in the ground and hope they come up again, although they tend not to in my patio pots.
We visited friends recently whose tulips came up year after year and we decided the soil must play a part – theirs is very free draining. Sadly, very few of mine do here. Your camassias must look amazing when they are all out!