It has been over a week since my ‘Queen of the Night’ tulips started teasing me by slowly undressing themselves. A rich, sultry purple crept through the buds, starting at the very tip like a lipstick stain and working its way through all the petals. And now the flowers are starting to unfurl. It’s fascinating, and I’m entirely hooked, even before the tulips have actually opened. It’s that rich, darker than dark colour that I love the most. It’s more grown-up than those lovely lego-coloured tulips in every front garden, more knowing than any other tulip I’ve seen.
I planted a clump of ‘Queen of the Night’ bulbs in the border last year, and even though they took a battering in the early spring weather, they looked so glamourous that I went wild this autumn and planted an even bigger clump. I also fed the tulips with comfrey tea once they had finished blooming, and sure enough they were back this year.
At the same time I planted these lovely cream ‘Shirley’ tulips. They were a happy accident: a frank exchange of ideas and opinions (read: argument) in the garden centre between Toby and me about which tulips we preferred found us settling upon a bag of cream-and-pink-flowered bulbs, which I wasn’t so happy with. I’m terribly picky you see, and only just learning to share my garden with someone else. But now they are flowering it seems the tulips have sorted the row out for themselves. They aren’t the gaudy barbie-coloured flowers on the packet. In fact, there’s only the faintest hint of a blush creeping in at the very margins, and so these little cream moth-like flowers can stay here too.
What tulips have you let into your garden this year?
Anyone visiting Victoriana from F&F will automatically get a discount on their order. Click the link above.
