I plan to continue working on my BULB Garden this fall. These couple years I have been using EARLY orange tulips along with Daffs and LATE purple, pink and white tulips with Alliums. It gives me two stages, one YELLOW & ORANGE scene in Early spring - Late Aprinl and the other PURPEL & PINK scene in Late Spring May.
QUESTION: What is/are your FAVORITE Purple Tulip(s)? Mine is Violet Beauty as shown.
Thank you!
Asunee-
Right now my favorite purple is your purple! I love that picture!
I'm planting t. 'purple prince' with t. 'princes irene' and white chionodoxa this season. (I didn't think up the combo--I saw it in Scheepers, I think.) I hope it's half as pretty as yours!
I'm interested to hear about everyone else's, too?!
Make sure to post a picture of that, Tabasco. I wouldn't have guessed that they bloom at the same time/height. Will be fun!
Everyone likes the surreal color of 'Cum Laude.'
This is my favorite pure color.
You have unusually good planning Asunee.
Favorite Double.
Since 'Queen of Night' black is a really dark purple, it's double sport 'Black Hero' is my favorite there, with those nifty white marks.
Favorite Bicolor:
Hands down, the hefty 'Zurel.'
K. James
Oh, well timed recommendation -- I've looked at 'Zurel' in catalogs, and it's about time to order fall bulbs again! :-)
I don't have any tall purple tulips (yet), but I really love the little species tulip 'Persian Pearl' that's planted in the corners by the side walkway... http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80872/index.html
Your ideas are making me wish I had ordered more tulips!
I will be interested to know if 'purple prince' and 'princes irene' bloom together, too. I am always looking for bulb combinations.
http://www.colorblends.com/Purple
My luck with tulips is limited by the darn deer and rabbits around here and I can't get too enthusiastic when purchasing. Most of mmy tulips go into containers on the porch. Boo hoo.
As far as purples go I like Attila and Zurel.
JamesCO: My 2 stages plan is actually coincidental. I started my orange bulbs 5 years ago then the flowers got smaller 3 years later. I thought I should change the theme so I switched to purple & pink. Luckily the Orange Emperor happens to be EARLY bloomer so they open up Early and go bye-bye by the time the purple & pink open up. So from then on I make sure I keep adding EARLY orange tulips and LATE purple & pink tulips to my garden. It works pretty well. By the way, Zurel looks so pretty.
Tabasco: I also love Purple Prince and have some in my garden side-by-side with Pink Impression. Also some white tulips with a few purple dashes on the edge of the pedals.
I use Chionodoxa every year. They come up the same time, if not earlier, as Daffs.
Thanks everyone & Keep coming with your input please. This is awesome!
Exactly, you make me envious. Unfortnately, 95% of the tulips I've ordered this year are late-blooming, so I'm having difficulty figuring out where they will grow, so as to not clash, which is my style to only a degree. A person can only have so many dark/orange/etc lily-flowered types... ('Queen of Sheba,' 'BalladeOrange,' and all bloody all of theLefaber hybrids...)
Time to go after the early-flowered twits...
K
Kenton-- found your last comments interesting but I didn't understand them too well so googled "lafaber" and found this RHS article for anyone interested which explains some about tulip hybridizing
http://www.rhs.org.uk/learning/publications/daffpubs_feature2.asp
I always try to plant early singles, in part because of the weather, and in part because some daffs are still blooming and it makes a better looking garden for us, but after reading this thread and the RHS article, I feel like I am missing out on the most interesting tulips!
I ordered these becuase I just love the color combination.
http://www.colorblends.com/bulb/Standing+Ovation,122,46
I like those Colorblend combinations, too. I tried to order some the other day and the shopping cart was down and wouldn't take my order. I think it was Providence watching out for my garden budget!
Asunee-- I think I want ot order white anemone blanda with my purple prince combination, right? (Not chionodoxa--that would bloom too early...I'm ordering chion. for my little blue bulb 'river' through my back yard.)
Thanks Tabasco for the Lafeber (spelled correctly this time) link.
We'll await your pictuers, Debsroots.
Debsroot: That's one absolute gorgeous combination. I however have yet used "Queen of the Night" tulip. I should try that. Have you checked out "Violet Beauty" tulip? It has an outstanding shade of purple.
Tabasco: I love Chionodoxa with my early yellow/orange Daffidils. It is one absolute winning combination.
By the way, I went to check out the bulbs at Home Depot last weekend. It reminded me that another combination I used last year was Negrita and Shirley tulips, as shown in the pic below.
Yes, I bought them at an affordable price at Home Depot. :-)
These all aren't purple but Langeveld's a fun site for tulips.
http://www.langeveld.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.main&alphaKey=T&whichName=genus&showIntro=0
They didn't list 'violet beauty' but they have a 'blue beauty'. I've never heard of a blue tulip. Have you?
Blue Beauty looks purple to me. :-)
I love my Black Parrot tulip ... but it is windy in the back of my house, especially when the tulips bloom and the Parrots only last for a short time ... the wind blows the petal away.
Yes, purple to me, too! But a 'blue' tulip would sell pretty fast, I bet!
toofewanimals--do you have a short strong purple you like?
Tabasco: Talking about blue flowers, Have you ever seen HIMALAYAN BLUE POPPY? That is one amazing blue flower. I saw the real flowers in a real garden setting for the first time in Alaska. They are just fantastic. I talked to the gardener who took care of the gardens. He told me it takes quite an effort to grow the blue poppy. I wish I could grow them in Chicago.
Although there are all sorts of pink and purple ones marketed as blue, (and I've tried a few, darnit) There are genetic and chemical reasons Tulips can't be blue, and same for Roses, but there are scientists working on it (not hybridizing, but gene-splicing). Some Japanese and Australian fellows have made some suprising steps in that direction.
My father tells me a story- He grew up in a University town in the Midwest, and his mother had an immacualte and gogreous garden. She had a big plot of tulips to the side of the house that bloomed like a great fluffy carpet each year. But one year, father (a small child then) walked out in the garden to play and found the neighbors- all botanists and biologists, in the garden looking at a tulip. Father couldn't understand what the fuss was about, a blue tulip didn't sound too unusual. He says that it only happened that year, and he couln't recall that anything ahd been figured out about it.
I have often wondered what made a tulip blue one year. It certainly had to be special for all the professor-folk to come round and take notes.
I guess we'll have to settle for Scilla and Camassia in the mean time.
Kenton
No I have never seen the famous poppy in a garden, only in photos. It's wonderful to know it is as beautiful in person as in the pics.
I understand it takes quite a gardener to get it growing but I just read that if you can grow rhododendrons well you can grow the poppy. I don't know if I believe that...do you?
.http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/54011/index.html
Kenton, thanks for sharing your memories of your dad and granny and their tulips. It sounds like bulb growing is in your blood!
There's a Purple Tulip Sale I thought everyone here should know about! LOL Van Engelen website special.
I had to post this purple tulip combination from Van Engelen here because they say it is a perfect combination with the azaleas (and that's what I am always trying to create.)
http://www.vanengelen.com/catview.cgi?_fn=Item&_recordnum=6505&_category=Website%20Specials
I bet it would be very pretty.
This message was edited Sep 30, 2006 9:25 AM
