Saturday, June 23, 2007

"Skagit Valley" Tulip Again

This is a celebration of the ebbing days of the tulip in 2007: here is my latest blooming tulip, named after the tulip-growing valley in Washington state, USA. "Skagit Valley" is a beautiful bicolor tulip. I don't see it in my catalogs this year, but it is similar to one named "Shirley" in the Botanus catalog. Speaking of catalogs, I am going to order some fall bulbs in the next few days. Some of the catalogs have these limited time offers, and I plan to take advantage of them. I usually order fall bulbs from Veseys and Botanus.

I get the Breck's catalog but I don't like that they often omit Latin names or category names (ie. botanical tulips, single late tulips, etc.). Instead, they have some fanciful names and I sometimes wonder if their marketing department just makes these up. For example, they have a fantastic picture of the "Ice Stick Tulip", but nowhere do they tell you that it's a Kaufmanniana Hybrid -- a division XII tulip which will naturalize and is known to be extremely long-lived. I suppose this is like the stereotypical woman buying a car joke:

Salesperson: "What kind of care are you looking for ma'am?"
Woman: "I'd like a red car."

Well, I'd certainly never let resident-lawnmower-man buy my tulips...

3 comments:

kate said...

Good idea ... you'd probably be horrified at what resident lawnmower man decided to buy. What is it about men and their lawnmowers anyway??

The tulip is lovely as is the raised flower garden. It's beautiful... have a good rest of the weekend!

Gardenista said...

Thanks Kate. I hear there were tornado and storm warnings for your area this weekend. Hopefully, there was no damage and maybe you got a rest indoors!

Anita said...

That tulip is very pretty, indeed! I like that colour a lot!

Thanks a lot for passing my blog and leaving such a nice comment.

No, my little hedges are not made of herbs. It's boxwood (and lavender as well).

By the way, we both seem to share the same passion: growing plants from seeds! Isn't it amazing to admire those plants when you know that it was just a very little seed just some months ago'?

Happy gardening and best wishes from Germany!

Anita