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Showing posts with label Hybrid Tulips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hybrid Tulips. Show all posts

Monday, April 15, 2013

I Was Wrong About Tulips


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I was wrong about tulips. Yup, I have always recommended species tulips over the hybrid tulips but after many years of growing all types of tulips in my gardens I am rethinking that advice. Hybrid tulips are the best! That is if you have longevity in your garden and don't mind going a few years without a bloom. They will of course bloom the first year they are planted but then you can expect it will be several years before they bloom again. That's okay if you don't mind the wait. 
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'Pink Impression' is one of the very best hybrid tulips you can buy. I have easily gotten three years of bloom from them before they disappeared-only to reappear several years later.  'Red Impression' is another nice one. Both are Darwin type tulips bulbs; which seem to get high ratings with perennializing in a garden.
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They do really make a big show and I can't help but think of Holland when I see these wonderful hybrid tulips in my garden. To see the tulips and all manner of bulbs blooming in the gardens of Keukenhof in Lisse Holland while we lived in Europe is a sight I shall never forget. Believe it or not my garden style has always been heavily influenced by the gardens I saw while living in Europe. Their gardens are park like. I enjoy that kind of setting in my own garden.
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I always plant a package or two of hybrid tulips each fall. I know, silly me. I just can't help myself. Each year I plant different colors. I love the blooms even if they bloom only one time! They are so very pretty and spring like. But after the first year I don't ever expect them to come back again-but now I think I'll expect them to return-after a mini vacation of sorts.
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This year seems to the year all of the hybrids came back to work. There are lots of wildly colored hybrid tulips. And you know what, I somehow think the 3-5 years between big shows is well worth planting hybrid tulips. They are almost like a surprise you didn't plant when they suddenly appear again after they've spent years on vacation....

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in the garden....

A tip when planting bulbs-mass them all together. I happen to like all the same color in one spot but even multi colored tulips look great when massed in groups of a dozen or more. 

It is tax day today and I am behind on filing. Wish me luck and I hope you all have finished yours! 



Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Pink Tulips are not so Bad Until...

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I like the tulips when they bloom. The problem is that most of my tulips here have been in the garden for several years and have not reliably bloomed the past few years. This year was the year I was all set to rip out all of my tulips. In fact-I began doing so and threw all the small bulbs I could easily pull out of the ground into the compost bin with a good shake of my hands. But I did not get around to ripping all of the hybrid tulips out and look what happened. They bloomed. Now I am severely chagrined for throwing out those old tulip bulbs because tulips are really very pretty when in bloom. But, as much as I love tulips and am happy any of them bloomed for me I am not so sure it wouldn't have been a better thing if I had ripped them out before the 'Forest Pansey' redbud bloomed.
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Because when you look at the tulips in the big picture you can tell there is a problem. A clash of colors-namely the  pink shade of the tulips does not work with the magenta of the redbud. Maybe a shade of yellow or even white would work better here. I think these pink tulips might just be blooming their last bloom here in the garden and I must make an effort to either move them or toss them. Any bad color combos in your garden? Those that you will admit too....


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Hybrid Tulips vs Species Tulips



Tulips, ah the sweet colors of tulips in spring. Nothing can be more welcoming than a big swath of tulips. Love the colors! There are so many to choose from that it can be very difficult to choose. Well, today's post is on choices. Choices not of the color kind, but of the specific kind of tulips to plant-hybrid or species. First of all, let me say I am not an expert on tulips at all. This post is a compilation of two years of specific observations of the behavior of one type of hybrid tulips versus one type of species tulips. The hybrid tulip cultivar is 'Pink Impression', and the species tulips I chose to grow is Tulipa linifolia. Some of the pictures of the hybrids are of other than 'Pink Impression', but only for show. The photos that count are of the two specific tulips I am comparing.
There are a few notable differences between hybrid tulips and species tulips in general. Hybrid tulips are usually pretty flashy and some have variegation like the one pictured above. It is 'Happy Days'. The petals are rounded as well.


My one and only species tulip, pictured above, is Tulipa linifolia. It is smaller than the hybrid tulips. Way smaller and has a different type of pistil and stamen in the center. The petals are pointed as well. The next notable difference is in the foliage. Hybrid tulips have bold, large foliage. These leaves are quite wide and get quite long. They are thick and hefty too.

Whereas species tulips have finer leaves which are quite a bit shorter and narrower. In fact, unless you knew this was where you planted species tulips you would not know this was tulip foliage at all.
Just look at this height of these 'Happy Days' tulips. They are easily 24' tall.

Here the species tulips barely reach 12" tall.

But the real difference comes between blooms and the lasting power of hybrid tulips versus species tulips. Here we have 'Pink Impression' blooms in April of 2008. This was their first year of bloom. Here is the exact same bed of 'Pink Impression' tulips in April 2009. Do you see a difference? There are notably fewer of the hybrid tulips in this second year. I really did not expect any to return so I was pleasantly surprised to get so many this year.
The same deal here with the Linifolia tulips. This is them in 2008.



All have returned this year as well and bloomed beautifully. In fact, I have found seedlings of the Linifolia tulips in gardens where they were never planted. I am thrilled.

Another difference between the 'Pink Impression' tulips and Linifolia tulips are the 'Pink Impression' came and left much earlier than the Linifolia tulips. In fact, the 'Pink Impression' bloomed nicely for about one week. The Linifolia tulips started right about the time the 'Pink Impression' tulips were fading and have outlived the hybrid tulips by at least 10 days so far. They bloom a bit longer, more like two weeks.

Also, due to the smaller diminutive nature of the Linifolia tulips, they tend to fade away rather quickly, unlike the huge foliage of the hybrid tulips. This is a bonus if you overplant and interplant as I do in my garden.

When I saw so many of the hybrid tulips had returned this year in this particular bed I had debated giving it another year before I did this post. But I decided to do this post now and follow up in one year.

But here is the real deal, the fact so many of the 'Pink Impression' tulips returned bodes well for this cultivar. Some of the other cultivars in my garden such as: Apledorn white and red have totally disappeared after only one year of bloom. Generally speaking, I have found the hybrid tulips will fade away after one or two years, disappear for 2-3 years then reappear for one year of bloom, then disappear for good. I am referring to Darwin hybrid tulips since that is all I plant here since they are supposed to be longer lasting than tulips such as the 'Parrot tulips' for example. You see my goal with growing tulips, or any plant for that matter, is to grow ones that will return faithfully and reliably each year. The hybrid tulips have not done this for me in the eight years I have been gardening here so I switched to the species type. I have found through research species tulips have been around for hundreds of years. I liked the Linifolia tulips simply because they are red.

There you have it, some of the differences between hybrid tulips and species tulips. The findings are general and both hybrid and species tulips have their admirable traits. For me though, the final straw is how long will they last in my garden without replanting? I want anything I plant to be here long after I am gone, and I don't think the hybrid tulips will fit the bill in my garden.We shall see what next year brings and I am thinking that should I decide to get more tulips, they will be species types.

in the garden....

Friday, April 10, 2009

Plant of the Month-April 09

From In the Garden


There are so many good plants in bloom this month that I had to narrow my choice down to one single question:

What is a show stopper in the garden right now?

The answer to that question has to be the Japanese Rose, aka Kerria japonica. My particular cultivar is 'Plenifora'; which is a double kerria that grows to about 6 feet tall and spreads slowly by suckers. It is growing in a spot where it only gets afternoon sun and it is doing great! I planted this shrub last spring and rarely watered it last summer. Despite neglect it bloomed off an on all summer and fall. And just look at it now! I think a showstopper indeed. Especially more so since it is sited under mature oak trees.

According to this website the kerria is hardy to Zone 5. Yeah for northern gardeners! This plant is a must have in all gardens. I like the green stems in the winter and I like its ease of care and long period of bloom. On my recent trip to McMinnville with my friends Judie and Phil, I insisted they should also get a kerria, and they did. You see, kerrias are poisonous and are listed as rarely damaged plants when deer maraud your garden. A good thing for gardeners with deer problems like my friends Judie and Phil. So far I do not have a deer issue here, and my dogs do not eat my plants so I do not worry about the kerria being poisonous. If you have plant eating children or pets take care when planting the kerria.

I also wanted to show you some other plants in the running for the coveted title of Plant of the Month in my garden. Last April's Plant of the was pulmonaria, a stellar performer even this year but not quite the showstopper like the kerria.

Grape hyacinths are a real stunner this year. I love the blue of them.

Camellias are still blooming strong. This particular one is a Camellia japonica. It is one of only two japonicas I grow and only because it was a markdown plant.


The 'Perfecta' bergenias I recently planted are trying to bloom.

Pieris is an outstanding shrub in the garden. I posted on this plant this time last year.

The tulips look pretty good. I enjoy them each year though hybrids are not my favorite. A post will come concerning the differences between species tulips and hybrid tulips at some point. Stay tuned.

Candytuft, aka Iberis sempervirens is hard to beat no matter the month of the year. I love this perennial very much!

Hyacinths are wonderful this year. I planted several hundred bulbs last fall. These were all marked down to cents at Rural King and I think I bought them out. The results show. And the bonus of hyacinths is that they will return each year.
Sorry about the other plant pictures, but I thought I'd use these as part of my bloom day post too and I also thought some of you might have these plants growing in your garden. I bet one of them could be your choice for your 'Plant of the Month'-so do let us know which one it is or if it is one not pictured....

in the garden....