Tulips...

[j_cheney]

The local weather guy is reporting a frost tonight...so I went out and gathered up the last up my good tulips and brought them inside....Queen of the Night, Black Parrot, Skagit Valley and Shirley, Angelique and China Town...some gorgeous peony flowering varieties....(plus some white-flowering bleeding hearts)

They won't make it back next year, so now they're in vases around the house, 5 vases to be exact.

Of all of them, the Black Parrot and the Queen of the Night were the most impressive blooms...not quite black, but a stunning deep burgundy. Must plant more of those for next year!

Comments

[anghara.livejournal.com]

What, aren't they supposed to keep blooming? How long does a bulb LIVE? My grandmother's hyacinths bloomed year after year without any re-planting - are tulips really necessary to re-stock?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I expect your grandmother didn't have Oklahoma soil.

We have heavy clay soil, the absolute death of tulips. The soil holds the water around the bulbs and they rot out, usually in 1 year if they aren't in a raised bed. In well-drained soil (like a planter) they can often last as long as 5 years.

Last year I planted 60 white tulips along the front border--1 returned, but didn't bloom. I can count on one year out of these guys, no more.

Hyacinths are tougher and will come back for several years, but their bloom display gets sparser evey year.

Sometimes what's perceived as 'living forever' is the original bulb starting new bulds right next to them. When one dies out, its babies carry on. Kind of like us ;o)

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

Wussie, inbred, tulips. What did bloom were spectacular, though!

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Black Parrot and QoftheN are two of my favorites, but then I love the really dark ones.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll pick up some bulbs this week. I've got a couple handy pots around.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I bought a 'mix' of dark bulbs from a catalog last fall. These were the two that were the standouts. Next year I'll just buy these two cultivars for that section of the yard. (Do something pink and white to go on the other side)

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Upstate New York bulbs have to be tough -- we're having snow after two days of "Spring." But the Burpee folks won't send those varieties our way. "No, no," they say. "You're not in the Zone." (Hardly anything is zoned for us. We see our first frost in as early as August some years, and "after all danger of frost has passed" means Memorial Day, if we're lucky.)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

We might have a freeze tonight, but I doubt it!

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

s-n-o-w.
only a dusting, but off an on all day, still going, and very windy... my tulips are up, my hyacinths are peeking above ground. Snowdrops and crocuses are blooming. they're tough little buggers. daffodils starting to venture above ground, too... hope they don't freeze. No buds yet, so they should be okay.