Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Tulip Tour

The tulips are about at their peak right now, although I do have a lot of late ones not really showing any colour yet.  A couple more days of this beautiful weather though, and the early Darwins are going to start their petal drop.  Then it is ugly city for a while until the irises start their parade.




This is the one downfall of tulips.  You have to deal with the big ugly foliage after the riot of colour has disapated.  My method of trying to disquise this is to plant them amid other perennials, so that once the blooms are spent, the later perennials are starting to hide the tulip aftermath.









Here are a few of the tulips that are bang on today:


this is the first year I've tried the fringed - quite unique




Short parrots with a high bush blueberry.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.
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2 comments:

  1. Starting Over, Accepting Changes - MaybeMay 10, 2011 at 10:17 AM

    My favorite flower is the tulip and I plant them in abundance. Most come back every year, but some of the older ones are beginning to feel their age. I can relate to that. Most of mine are spent now with just two varieties in their blooming splendor. The leftover foliage is a bother, but I usually wait for about two weeks when they are not as structured and turn them down with a rubber band. This seems to dry them out quickly and they are gone in a few weeks or so. Daffodils are a different story as you get 10 times more foliage for each flower and they never seem to go away for months. If I have time (and now do), I braid them like my mother taught me and not only do they begin to lay flat on the ground, but they dry up so much quicker. Rubber bands do the trick also, but not as fast as braiding.

    My Iris plants are about to bloom any day and are usually magnificent. I bought them a few years ago at a sale in K-Mart and they listed peach as their color. Instead of peach, they are bright yellow. Never trust K-Mart. Disappointment was my first reaction, however, the color has grown on me and they are spectacular. Their greens last all summer as they take a long time to go limp. I usually just put some large pots of flowers in front of them to hide the spent plants

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  2. The Musical GardenerMay 11, 2011 at 6:43 AM

    Thanks for the tips on turning the leaves down. I may try that with a few of my plants (too many to tackle all told).

    You are obviously a fair bit farther south. I noted my first bud showing on an iris yesterday. I have about 200 varieties of TB irises, so I will be spending a fair bit of blog time on them.

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