Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Modifying the Tulip display

We have had a rather stunning Tulip display in the front yard for about 6 years now.  I started by planting red and white tulips staggered in concentric circles in the figure 8 garden.  Those individual bulbs have multiplied quite a bit over the years.

This Fall we decided to add to the display, without removing any of the current bulbs.  Red and yellow Tulips are easy to come by and are a common color scheme.  I was adamant that we didn't do something common.  We looked into different colors that we could add to our red and white to make a nice theme.  We decided to add a couple of pinks and purples to the mix.  It will be a sort of Valentine's mix of colors.

new_colors
New tulip colors being added for next spring.
We are adding about 60 bulbs this year - 15 Apricot Impressions, 15 Purple Flag, 15 Pink Impressions and 12-15 Lilac bulbs that my in-laws bought in the Netherlands.

I'm excited to see how these bulbs complement our Spring display next year.  We were also careful to pick Tulip styles that match our existing contingent of Darwin hybrids.  The added bulbs didn't have to be Darwins, but we didn't want to add a bunch of different heights and frilly shapes to our existing display.

new_bulbs_in_bed
Bulbs laid out carefully between the circles of existing bulbs and ready to plant.
Future modifications will probably mean that we'll have to dig up bulbs and replace them with different colors.  The other option would be to have an "anything goes" bed of Tulips, but for now we're going for more of a planned look and I think it has been working really well.  We've even had a couple of neighbors ask if they could use our Tulip bed for photo shoots with their kids.  We were happy to oblige!  That's what it's all about - having others enjoy our Tulip bed.

3 comments:

  1. The purple flag looks to be a beauty Zach. I need to move my bulbs next year. Seems they are all in straight lines for some silly reason. Someone told me last Spring they looked artificial standing all around in lines. ;-)
    Your well make a wonderful show next Spring.

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  2. HiZach,
    I happened on your web page, doing a search for Ginkgo. If you would like some seed, I'd be happy to send you some, free of charge. I'm just a fellow plant enthusiast. I don't know what variety they are, but they came from large trees planted by the city of Roanoke, VA. Let me know, I guess you'll have my e-mail, so you can just get in touch with me that way if your interested.

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  3. Anticipate to see all your lovely tulips to bloom. It truly going to be very glorious for the coming spring.

    I doubt tulip could survive in the tropical region, have not even seen a real life one in any of the gardens in my place. (leave alone fresh cut flowers, they don't even get shipped here at all)

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