I hate the look of a mixed hanging basket or jumble of annuals, even a jumble of tulips..
Tulips at Bodnant
So why did I buy a mixed bunch of tulips?
I’m not sure. Maybe the colours just work together?
Or at least better than the Bodnant ones? Bright yellow and pale lilac….hmmm. In my bunch the colours have similar weight.
Anyway, they came out like this:
And I’m enjoying them!
“The question to ask is, ‘what is here that is true, that is underneath the superficial things? What is here that matters?”
Autobiography of a Garden is about the garden making, Pat’s life, the history of the land, the ideas, the art, the plants and the devouring deer.
But to dream, and perhaps more importantly, to innovate, we should inspire ourselves globally:
“Have issue. You were so adamant that you wouldn’t go to Chelsea again. Discuss, please”.
. And now, knowing we won’t live forever, we’re thinking about what will happen to the house and garden when we die.
The garden is actually interestingly old fashioned. It’s not just the bedding but the relentless inclusion of every garden cliché, however brilliantly executed.
I don’t imagine you expected the world of horticulture and gardens to escape the decolonising agenda. But if you have concerns …
“Maintaining tradition is only really helpful when the result is positive…”
Hi Anne – they look fat and healthy and the colours ‘tone’ well together. Sometimes I find that mixed bunches look like a jumble of Easter eggs and are too pale or pastel. Enjoy them!
Rebecca
Thanks, Rebecca – you’re ight. It’s about balance and weight, isn’t it?
Some years ago, I looked at a hole in the lawn that’s filled with massed bedding in the summer and decided it should be filled with something in the spring. So I planted 500 tulips. First year it looked good. The tulips were planted deep and were overplanted for the summer. Next spring the tulips looked naff. So I bought another 500 and dug the old things out and replanted. Lovely display but the following year, naff again. Then a tulip salesman told me to pop in 100 each year to top up the display. Tried it. Naff. Tulips are coming up at the moment. I’ll see how they perform. Then I’ll dig the lot up and forget it.
I’d grow a mass of daffodils but the last time I did they got nicked overnight on 28 February and I (really) need my beauty sleep!
Tulips are indeed over-rated. But they do look nice in a vase.
As long as you ignore any colour balance and go for a riot.
(BTW Touching on another of your favourite plants, this year, out of 100 snowdrops, one, YES ONE, produced a deformed flower. Lovely foliage from the rest though.)
What made the display go from good to naff ??
Looking out at the white/brown/grey hill outside my window (another snowfall last night), I found the tulips’ colors to be like a bath of sunlight. If I were looking at them in a Connecticut August, when I long for cool air and cool tones, I might see them differently.
Now there’s another consideration…
Being Dutch, gardening in North Essex, I love my tulips, however I have given up. Deer like my garden too, Muncjac, Badgers, I try to con them out of it, but they always find them, and since it is their garden too, as far as I am concerned, I stopped growing tulips..
But reading your book at the moment Anne, and absolutely loving it, just love the way you just do your own thing and stuff the rest of the ( Gardening World ), ( very Dutch ), maybe next year I will grow them in my little Greenhouse, regards Loes Reeve
I am glad you are enjoying the book (and yes, I understand the Dutch are much more forthright than the British – I was born out of place..). Last year I decided not to grow tulips at all, but spend the money on buying them at florists, no doubt from your countrymen.But I couldn’t get the most exciting ones so I’m back to pots full.
We too are plagued with deer – ruining our wood and currently eating our erythoniums. Bit miserable, especially to have trees destroyed. Saw a local crime report that they were being poached (the deer) and I’m afraid I rejoiced..XXX
They can shoot the deer, as far as I am concerned, we fenced off our orchard, and caged in our vegetables. However, they don’t go into my flower garden much, as it is almost walled in. There is one animal that only likes the black ones. I will put them in pots next year. Sounds like a good idea.
Yep – pity we can’t have the whole garden and wood fenced.. Poach away, I say..