What a spring we have been having. Non-stop flowers on spring bulbs, including glorious tulips with the most incredible flower forms, mixes of colour and pattern on their petals. Magnolias which go on and on, in the expected shades of pink and white, but also now yellows and a coral coloured one which seem to be popping up all over the city! All of these magnolias must have been there for a while, as many are quite large, but I guess three things have made us see them this year...the temperatures are ideal, we are out walking, and walking, and walking....and perhaps this whole experience with the pandemic has made us look at things a little closer.
As it is tulip festival time, I share below a few photos of tulips. I have tried to look closer... Hope you enjoy them, and remember to order fall bulbs early and instead of planting 50 of them, plant 150! Make a little plan in the next while of where you have blank spaces in your garden so you can remember come fall where you need to plant.
Do you live close to Beechwood Cemetery? Their flowering trees are in full bloom now...
Or do you live closer to the Farm? Another place to see fabulous displays of crabapples and lilacs, many of which were bred by Isabella Preston at the Farm.
Next year, why not plant some different tulips in your garden — here are a few unusual ones you might want to look for!
Parrot Tulips - very flamboyant, usually late in the season. Their mutated petals apparently resemble the colours and texture of parrots’ feathers. They burst forth after having shown their uneven edges tightly curled as you wait for them to open. Some are a bit more restrained than this one, which is early and has been blasted open right from the start.
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
This one seems to be a mix of Parrot and Rembrandt tulips (more about Rembrandts below…). They have the parrot-like feathery petals as well as the streaking found on Rembrandt Tulips.
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Fringed Tulips -These tulips resemble Parrot Tulips slightly, with less mutating of the petals. They look quite shredded at the edge, as if a seamstress just wanted to tidy up those edges a bit! (Not my favourite, but had to put at least one in…)
Photo: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Lily-Flowered Tulips. The elegant dancers of the Lily world, these tulips practically shout ‘Ta-Dah’ as they start to open!! They come in many solid colours, and sometimes combinations of colour, as with this viridiflora tulips (below). The lily-flowered tulips bloom mid to late spring, and look beautiful coming up through mats of forget-me-not, Mertensia and moss phlox. A vase full is stunning!!
Photo: Mary Pratte (copyright)
The same tulip as above, but fully open. This one measures 8-9” across!
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
A single Lily Flowered Tulip in all its simplicity.
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Peony Flowered Tulips - these double Peony Flowered Tulips really do look like peonies but at the wrong time of year for double peonies. They have been bred to have many petals, and often there are no reproductive parts left. The stamens, etc., have all but disappeared, as the breeders wanted a mass of bloom over the plant’s ability to reproduce by seed. These double tulips usually bloom very late so are often blasted by the sun, but more are available nowadays which bloom a bit earlier.
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Rembrandt Tulips - In the 1600’s, there was no housing marked as we have today, but there was Tulip Mania, which saw people selling their houses to buy recently introduced tulips with streaks of colour on a white or yellow background. These streaks were caused by viruses (yes, viruses again!!!), and over time, the bulb would be weakened from the virus, and the bulb would die. In the 1630th, the market for tulips plunged, and people lost everything.
Over the many centuries since then, breeders have figured out how to grow streaked tulips without the virus, so those you see today will not deteriorate as the original ones had. hey are just beautiful in the garden and in a special vase indoors.
A few pictures of a few in my garden, just to give you an idea of what they are like.
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Photo: Mary Pratte
Photo credit: Mary Pratte
Photo Credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
And a few other tulips in no particular order or category….
Who says pink and orange don’t mix with red and yellow?'
Photo credit: Mary Pratte
Like fancy fingernails from the spa!!!
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Hanging on…look at that beautiful green pollen!
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)
Remember those kaleidoscopes we had as kids? Think this is where they got the idea!!!
Good old Mother Nature...you can always count on Her!
Photo credit: Mary Pratte
Unusual colour combinations, but it all seems to fit!
Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)