Tulips and daffs
When I was planting the two raised beds outside my greenhouse last autumn - one with tulip bulbs and one with daffs - it seemed so unlikely that the papery bulbs and soil would combine to create *colour* and *life* in just a few short months. But here we are: almost every bulb has bloomed. Bulb planting is quite the lesson in delayed gratification.
I bought loads of varieties and then (inevitably) lost track of them in the rush to get the bulbs in. But the absolute stand-out tulips for me have been the parrots. I know I ordered ‘Parrot King’, ‘Blumex Favourite’, ‘Parrot Rococo’ and ‘Apricot Parrot’, but honestly it’s difficult to tell which is which because the flowers are so different even within each variety. I think ‘Rococo’ is my favourite, especially in bud: it’s dark, with splashes of red and neon yellow, and of course crinkly-edged like all the parrots. They’re all very overblown and maximalist in a Dutch Masters kind of a way, particularly at the end of their lives just before the petals drop off.
Among the non-parrots, ‘Palmyra’ is giving me joy. It’s a lovely little dark red, cup-shaped flower with frilly petals. It’s currently looking really good next to a blue-green spruce and some blue-toned pansies. I think it would be pretty special with a metallic fern. I’ve also got two pots of the classic red ‘Bastogne’ - absolutely the most tulipy tulip - but it’s clashing a bit with the bright pink blossom of the crab apple. ‘Rousillon’ is toning in better; it has quite an elegant lipstick-pink flower with a beautiful long, dark stem. And I can’t make my mind up about ‘Apricot Impression’. It is huge: an absolute unit of a flower, on stems of over 50cm. I’ve got some in a pot round my acer and they’re swamping the poor tree. It definitely needs a bigger setting.
The narcissus bed is so pure and white next to all this mad colour. (No yellow daffs for me, thanks). I’m not sure really that the two go together very well, and having both the raised beds full of bulbs does rather clog up my main growing spaces - I’d like to be getting some hardy annuals going but I can’t while the later daffs are still in flower. So I think next year I’ll combine all the bulbs in one bed and get a head start on some of the more robust annuals in the other. I can also get more daffs in the lawn and meadow, where hopefully I’ll be more inclined to pick them. Although I planted the raised beds for picking I’ve hardly cut any because they look so amazing en masse. My favourite daffs were the super simple all-white narcissi like ‘Thalia’ and ‘Pheasant’s Eye’, so I’ll make sure I have a few of these among the tulips next year, and I’ll try some new varieties for naturalising.