Get ready to plant a long-lasting, colorful tulip garden

MARGARET C. CROOKS, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published September 29, 2001

Tulips often are treated as annuals, the hybrids performing well for only a year to possibly three years before bloom declines nearly to zero. They are most commonly used in large beds of a single cultivar or two or three cultivars of complementary colors.

Tulip fanciers know, however, that there are tulips that flower as early as late March and some that come into bloom as late as early June. Many are at home in the mixed border or just tucked among shrubbery and would not be appropriate for mass bedding.

The first to bloom in my garden are the Kaufmannianas, usually by the fourth week in March. My favorite among these is "Johann Strauss" with pink and cream waterlilylike blooms and attractively mottled foliage.

Next come the Greigiis, usually with mottled or striped foliage. "Red Ridinghood" is the most popular of these, but "Easter Surprise" is even better, to my taste, with glowing yellow petals intensifying to tangerine at the tips. Another early group is the Fosteriana or Emperor tulips. They are called Emperor because of the wide popularity of "Red Emperor" in the 1950s and which is still on the market. "Flaming Purissima" is colored raspberry and cream. "Purissima" is pure white.

These three groups of tulips will come back year after year and can certainly be considered perennial.

Suited to small areas of color for the spring garden, the fringed tulips are best viewed at close range and are excellent for cutting. Colors range from cream to yellow, violet, pink to deep rose red. My favorite is "Fancy Frills" with coloring of strawberries and cream.

Usually tall growing and excellent for cutting are the lily-flowered tulips. These often have delicious bicolor blooms described in one catalog as yummy in fruit colors from lemon yellow to purple plum and red cherry. I like "China Pink" with its white heart.

The Parrots are the jokers of the tulip clan with ruffled and cut petals. These are late flowering, usually with streaks and splashes of color from delicate pastels to deep, bold burgundy with black flames. "Fantasy" combines salmon, pink, green and cream.

The double late tulips are fine for cutting, but I find them a little clumsy in the garden. "Angelique" is very popular with shades of pink and cream, but be warned that it is very susceptible to botrytis.

Viridifloras also are late, usually blooming in early June. These have streaking of green. "Artist" is pink and white with the green. It repeats for several years.

A perennial species, clusiana is low growing and fine for rock gardens, edges of mixed borders or under shrubbery. Flowers open to star shape in sun. "Cynthia" has red petals edged with chartreuse and a purple base.

Praestens "Fusilier" has been around for a long time. This also is reliably perennial. It is bright orange-red and multiflowered. Praestens "Unicum" is a sport of "Fusilier" with white-edged foliage.

Tarda is a little star-shaped bunch flowering tulip with white and yellow flowers. It is pretty with blue companions. One of the nice things about tulips, the foliage doesn't persist long after the flowers fade, allowing the tidy gardener to remove it in just a few weeks, unlike daffodil foliage that hangs in until July.

If you do plan to make tulip beds with the single earlies, Darwin hybrids or single lates, underplant them with something that will give color before and with the tulips and remain attractively colored until the tulip foliage ripens.

A nice, bright combination is single late "Georgette" with yellow petals and orange-red edges, brush marks and dots with screaming orange pansy "Padparadja." "Georgette" is multiflowering, giving a whole bouquet on a stem.

Tulip bulbs will be in the garden centers soon, but wait until November to plant them.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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