Rare Tulips
For every scare of rock-gardeners who struggle with difficult rariCes which die unflowered or flower. as dowdily as dead- nettles, only one seems to pay any attention to the glorious
and accommodating race of tulip species. These natives of Asia Minor and Turkestan and the South Russian steppes are quite distinct from the hybrids of gardens, the Darwins and Cottage and Bizarres, but for the most part quite as easy in cultivation. And one of the easiest and cheapest (T. Kaufmanniana) has the virtue of being the earliest tulip to flower, a most delicate thing of soft yellow and pink which opens out flat and wide in the March sun like a primrose water-lily, and all without any coaxings from cloches or warm walls or forward springs. It flowers on into April, and is followed almost immediately by .T. Clusiana, a .tall, extremely tender and delicate tulip of pink and bluish-white, the colours in stripes and the heart. of the tulip a rich violet ; and then by T. Eirhleri, a most brilliant Georgian tulip, passionate scarlet, with a black heart and fine silver- green leaves, a gorgeous sight. All these are reasonable to buy and as easy as Darwins to grow. But Farrer speaks of thirty other species, and a distinguished but moderate-priced cata- logue. of a well-known alpine specialist offers thirty-five, most of them brilliant creatures of a scarlet shade never found in hybrids, and one, T. Persica. orange and bronze, T. Turkes- stanica, white, T. S'Iellata, a kind of yellow Clusiana from the Hitnalayas, T. Violacea, true violet, and T. Pit lehella, which obliges not only by flowering from mid-March for a month but by having flowers of pink or lilac or white or carmine with basal blotches of black or yellow or blue.
Previous page
