Tiptoe through the Tulips



My dear client, Mark, has been overcome with Tulipmania.
It is a wonderful malady that encourages someone to plant thousands of bulbs in the fall.


It started out gently for Mark - we had just finished the total site design around a magnificent house he had built. This included viewing gardens, a terrace and outdoor kitchen for entertaining, entry drive and parking area, walls and steps and more.

I planted some tulip bulbs around a newly planted Kwanzan cherry tree to give him a quick burst of spring color.


Mark was very appreciative the next spring when he saw the deep red tulips encircling the tree at the entry to his house.  He just wished I had planted a 'few' more.....



Well, that was about 5 years ago.  Today Mark plants tens of thousands of tulips on his lovely property.  And the effect is overwhelmingly delicious!


The tulips are planted with abandon - color blends dominate and it looks, to me,  like an ice cream social! Those sherbet colors meld together in a sweet concoction of tulip-iciousness. ( hey, a new word!)


So look now at those bulb catalogs coming your way - even if you have a 'postage stamp' of a yard - like I do - you can still plant fabulous colors and dreamy blends in a sunny corner...





Just keep those pesky deer away....Yes, Mark has a fence.

By the way,  a good bulb catalog you can order from now is Van Bourgondien

Comments

  1. Gatsbys GardensApril 27, 2010 at 9:00 AM

    Wow, those are over the top! I have a postage stamp yard also and I do plant a lot of bulbs, but Mark has me beat.

    Eileen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indoor FountainsApril 27, 2010 at 11:06 AM

    I have a great tulip garden on the side of my house, planted by the previous owner. I don't have any pictures quite as pretty as these to post but tulips are one of my favorite flowers. It also was a factor in my decision to buy my house ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dinorah Matias-MelendezApril 27, 2010 at 3:13 PM

    Beautiful, Jan. Your designs really create an impression on my pupils. Very inviting! Love the Cercis canadensis on the top pic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beverly SeatonApril 28, 2010 at 2:10 AM

    Gorgeous colors. I was linked here by the Hillary Clinton name issue raised in an article on roses in The Human Flower Project. Hope to get some Hillary Clinton tulips myself for next year.

    Glad to see the comment about deer. I have tulips for the first time in many years since I just put in a 6 foot chain link fence around my vegetable garden. The idea now is that I can fit in flowers that could not be grown outside a fenced area along with vegetables which can grow on the fence except of course for big tomatoes. Swiss chard. Onions. So last fall I planted 60 tulips bulbs, in reds and pinks and bicolors, to relieve the yellows and whites of my many daffodils. Tulip Hillary Clinton is a nice color for me, pink/white bicolor. Fence also encloses lilies and large dahlias, which deer have been known to eat around here.

    I gave up trying to fit tulips in somewhere--this is an old farmouse with a lot of planting space and woods. The woods have increasingly attracted deer. The last straw was a memorial garden a friend planted for my tulip-loving mother after she died at 90. There were 90 tulips of all colors. The deer ate them all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jan JohnsenApril 28, 2010 at 6:46 AM

    Dinorah - I will now write with your students in mind! fun stuff coming...

    and Beverly - I will write an entry on Hillary Clinton tulips, a little known but wonderful late blooming tulip....I order them now through my local garden shop - Michael's Garden Gate....if you can't fine them contact them in Mt Kisco, NY...the're putting in the order now for this Fall.

    btw, I have learned to love fences.. all kinds, all colors

    ReplyDelete
  6. SarahMay 5, 2010 at 10:49 PM

    A really entertaining post after a long say in the field. He really loves his tulips! Reminds me of the "Tulip Fever" in 17th century Holland when some tulip bulbs sold for like 10x the average annual income.

    ReplyDelete

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