Tulips that even your cat could grow

In years past (not that I'm old...) I have planted hybridized tulips. They look great the first year, then I maybe get leaves and about half the number of flowers the next year, then there are just leaves, and then a leaf... Clearly I don't know how to grow that sort of tulip, and I like independent plants so I probably won't be finding out.

But one day I found species tulips, which I mail-ordered just to see, and they were terrific. So while the PNW doesn't have its own native tulips, the imported wild ones do well here and seem to live forever with the most minimum of care.

Here is a photo of my bunches of Tulip batalini growing today under the bamboo and among the native Oregon ginger (Asarum caudatum, a fabulous groundcover). The tulips have been beautiful for a couple of weeks and have born the recent rain (and hail) too. They do politely increase, so you can dig bulbs in the late fall to share or plant in the woods.

Those are beautiful!!! :) I'll have to get some this fall... I've decided to consider tulips to be annuals because even if they did decide to bloom nicely the second year, the squirrels are constantly transplanting them to weird locations for the deer to eat... They're in cahoots, for sure...

Thanks Kur! --I didn't know deer eat tulips! When deer wander into my gardens they tend to go straight for the roses or the strawberry plants.

Regarding squirrels, I think we should issue them all little notebooks so they can jot down the locations of the things they bury, which seem principally to be black walnuts at my house, so then in winter they can just go right out and dig them up again without going through all my potted plants and beds searching while the walnuts germinate and grow into impossible weeds. Just a thought.

I hope you do try the wild tulips, they might hold up better somehow against the animals!

You guys are too funny. Linnie, I definitely would vote to put you in charge of herding squirrels.

Linnie -- thanks for the suggestion. I have been thinking along the same lines. While I like some of the lovely tulips I see in people's gardens each year, I find it somewhat of an affront for them to die a slow death right in front of me.

That's a lovely stand. Do you have a good source for these?

Summerkid: But the squirrel chasing at my house is definitely in the white terrier's job description. Now I include an image of him (Max). ( I post his picture at every teeny opportunity because he is way photogenic.) That is NOT how he looks today however-- he has been helping me dig up the rose bed, which is almost too wet and muddy to dig, and today he is extremely un-white.

Katie: I ordered the batalini tulips from some bulb catalog which appeared in my real out-by-the-highway mailbox. Most all bulb dealers list about a page of those sorts of tulips along with the millions of hybrids.

I order all my bulbs from john scheepers or, if i'm really going all out, from their wholesale arm, van engelen. some years, VE says, my orders are larger than some nurseries'!

I'll look and see whether batalini is in any of the bulb catalogs I get.

Max is very, very cute.

Your little furface is a doll.

These were playing in the courtyard with me. Seven little 1" toads.

This one was hiding from the broom.

Wow, just visited VE's site, Summer... I love wholesale... :) Minimum order is $50 right? Looks like they will have batalinii Tulips as well... http://www.vanengelen.com/catview.cgi?_fn=Product&_category=Tulips:Species

Linnie: Can I have your dog? :)

That IS one cute dog. My dog is so un-doglike that occasionally I lust after the normal ones.

Kur, VE's shipping rates to the coast are pretty high, but they really give you a good price if you are ordering, say, 200 Narcissus 'Camelot.' Plus they have a great selection.

You are all so good to put with my dog on a garden forum! I just mowed the wet grass and now he is quite green, a dog from Mars I told him. You can't have him Kur but I am looking for a dog sitter for vacations...

I think I got the tulip bulbs from Scheepers now that you remind me of the name. (I could never remember names and boy does it get worse as I go along!) How do you get all those bulbs planted every year Summerkid? But they are so great to have in the spring.

I love the toad photos Willowwind-- what makes them toads instead of tree frogs?
Every summer tree frogs (I think that's what they are!) move into my little greenhouse. They come in about May or June and hang around all summer. One lived in the greenhouse sink a couple of summers ago. You could look down the drain and he would be looking back at you. Then there was one that stayed among the pots of basil. I grow my basil in the greenhouse all summer and he just lived there in the big sunny pots and would jump when I watered them.

Oh, I hope I get some frogs here. There were geckos but I'm worried that the cats snacked.

When I'm planting mass bulbs it's usually along a fence or lot line & I just dig a shallow trench, lay out the bulbs & bring in a load of dirt. Tulips, especially, like the drainage.

By the time I moved out of Brookfield, a suburb west of Chicago, we were being overrun by deer, and the first damage they did at my place was to carefully sort through my newly planted black & white border & eat only the WHITE lily bulbs. I was so mad. Not over the loss of the bulbs but over the huge amount of compost that was transported onto the lawn. They are QUITE the earth movers.

The toads are dark and lumpy and get to be about 4" long. And I think they eat the little green tree frogs because there are none in the courtyard anymore. This is a picture of the big one.

I have that species tulip dasystemom and it has bloomed and multiplied for at least ten years. Now I have to get some different colors.^_^

I think a trench sounds like an excellent bulb planting idea-- I have never done a long row like that. I have one of those bulb planting tools that you push into the ground and it brings up a tube of soil and leaves a tunnel to drop the bulb into. It works well except you have to push the soil it lifted out of it with something. Those white flowering bulbs must have smelled better to the deer! Where is Rose Lodge OR, Summerkid? (I am just east of Salem.)

Willowwind I don't think I have ever seen a toad! That's well for my tree frogs it seems, if they are lunch for toads. So fun to see your photos.

It has been great hearing from you all today when I came in for breaks or to dodge the showers--

linnie, Rose Lodge is on Highway 18 (to Lincoln City) between mile markers 5 & 6 ... It takes me about 45 minutes to get to Salem from here, so maybe you'll come visit?

i got some batalinii species tulips from Van E during a 50 % off sale two years ago, but mine are not blooming yet though there are buds. I also got tulipa linifolia (bright red) in the same sale, and it has been blooming for a week or so. The only problem with that sale is that I bought a lot of just a few kinds. I would prefer a little more variety.

Tulips have been way under represented in my gardens, and your photos of these species ones are really getting me interested. And I saw from my sister's yard how well they multiply, much added bonus. I only have a couple lone lollipops here and there, likely gifts from my kids or something.

Your single lost looking tulips are exactly what I have left of hybrid ones Bonehead! You will love the species kind, they are so dependable. You actually get flowers!

Those watermelon red tulips are glorious Mauryhillfarm! I should go for them just for the (linifolia) name...

Summerkid, now that I think of it I have seen a sign for Rose Lodge, and it must be when I get over to the coast. It is my favorite place to escape and is not visited by me anywhere nearly enough. ( I keep telling Mr. O that I want him to install an ocean on the edge of my gardens but he is quite contrary about the notion.) Maybe I will get to visit you someday Summerkid!

Last year I went through the Brent & Becky's Bulbs, Van Burgundien, and Holland Bulb Farms catalogs and picked out the tulips in colors that I like that would be the most perennial and naturalizing. On the species tulip side I ended up with Little Princess - which is a cross between two dwarf species tulips. I also got a bunch of Darwin hybrids and Fosteriana types. So far, my favorites are the Fosterianas and Daydream (which is a Darwin hybrid). I'm a little disappointed in Little Princess - I think it may have just been the timing this year, as they happened to bloom during our rainiest portion of the spring so I haven't seen them open a lot - and maybe they'll improve as they settle in over the next few years. But I think next year I might try Princes Irene and some batalini species like 'Bright Gem'. I love the ones we saw at Willows place during her greenhouse party.

And Katie - the solution to watching them die a slow death in front of you is obvious. Buy more plants! Plant them so thick you can't see that darn yellowing foliage, or pop some annual seedling starts in front of them once blooming is done.

I think there are very few gardening conundrums that can't be solved by buying more plants :)

Princes Irene is my No. 1 favorite tulip of all time, and it came back reliably for me in one of my raised veggie beds. But beware -- it is on the short side, so put it in the front.

Linnie, I love visitors & have a huge house. My place is about 10 miles from the beach.

We have gotten very good repeat performances of the Impression tulip series. Several years.

Hi all. Popping in to visit and saw this thread. Just wanted to say the greigii and kaufmanniana tulips do really well for me. Beautiful flowers and they multiply like crazy.

Looks like I'll have to do some more tulip shopping . . .

Thanks to all of you who have come up with species names and photos! Now I just need a reminder when planting time comes. And, apparently, a terrier. Good dog, Max! The cats go for the squirrels, too, but is that why I have neither toads or frogs?

Hi Dnut! Have a sit & tell us tales of pocket rocks, Calgary sunshine & Dahlias that are soon to wake up.
Which Dahls are new for you this year? I have replaced my losses & now up to 12 brand spankin' new ones, maybe 14 if I go to the local Nursery this weekend. Or more. =:0)

Hi Katye ^_^ The Wakening of the Dahlia Festival was luvly this year. The dahlias were potted up and moved out to the greenhouse in April where they are growing and flourishing and hoping that one day it will be warm enough to live outside (it snowed this week snort). I got a few new dahlias this year from Dan's Dahlias. I am particularly excited about Christmas Star http://www.dansdahlias.com/product_details.php?category_id=0&search_string=christmas+star&item_id=485

Velveteena, I came home to a big, bruised toad on the deck with happy cats dancing around him. I rescued him and put him into a safe place. I'm guessing that it probably is your cats who are making the frogs/toads scarce.

oh drool, drool... That is niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I am playing with lots of ORANGE this year, and I do emphasize the word!
But I had to get this one called Maniac because, well, it just so fits in my world...
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/218863/

There are others - with a couple pink selections (just in case I need them),
and a big huge "Hissy Fitz" screaming yellow type for my blue/yellow area. I think this one gets up & walks around on its own. Oh good - I'll just point to where i need it next year. http://www.dansdahlias.com/product_details.php?item_id=151
Be sure to tell me where you are posting pics, Dnut - probably in Dahls, ya think?
By the way - was there a celebratory dance this year?
I threw the spading fork hoping to appease the weather, which was not appropriate, or so i was told.

LUV the orange! Yupper will be posting pics on the Dahlias Forum. There was dancing and feasting this year and of course an opening ceremony parade around the herb garden twirling the big bamboozler dahlia stake. I wanted to have a horse in the parade this year but alas not enough room for a horse. Also probably a good thing as I probably would have poked the poor thing with my twirling stake.

I read somewhere that if you lift tulip bulbs in the fall and replant them in spring they will come back. They need to be dry when they go dormant. I don't know if it is true but it might be worth trying.

That does work but they have to be chilled.

No no! Digging up is reserved for relocating to a better sun aspect only and does absolutely not happen EVERY YEAR. I have enough trouble getting things in the ground to start, I am afraid.

So sorry about that toad and those hunt-some kitties Katie, good job rescuing him. Did you take him to the vet? :)
(This from a woman who tried to bottle-feed tiny skunks once....)

I finally found a photo of my greenhouse sink frog. He came for two summers and I named him Vinny. The photo is Vinny smiling at the camera from his beloved drain. (Doesn't he have a lovely smile?!)

I love Vinny . . congrats on finding the photo.

As for me, I'm the same. Called 911 for an opossum once - long story.

As for my frog, I washed the blood off of him and it didn't seem to be freely flowing, so I assumed the wounds were superficial (probably because he was so big). So I put him in a spot away from the cats. 10 minutes later he was gone.

I absolutely know your frog is fine and well now, and wiser, and enjoying the spring. Don't ask me how I know this, it's just a gardener thing-- (If you find him otherwise don't tell me.)

But when you get time I simply have to hear the story about calling an ambulance for an opossum. (We really must be related. )