I cannot resist the temptation of buying bulbs and I am sure you will all identify with that. I thought I had already bought my full quota for next spring but emails with offers keep dropping into my inbox. Last week I had an email from the RHS which included a beautiful tulip called “Golden Artist” a Veridiflora tulip with golden orange petals and a green stripe.
Photo courtesy of Crocus – Golden Artist
Being a savvy shopper I took a look at other websites and found the same bulbs a lot cheaper on Crocus. http://Www.crocus.co.uk. Of course whilst there I had to look at the other bulbs, who wouldn’t!
Before I go any further let me stress that I am in no way a bulb expert. The information about these bulbs is taken from the Crocus website. I just thought if you were still looking to buy tulips bulbs for the spring you might find it interesting, and I wanted to share my purchases with you.
What I always find useful is suggestion planting, and ‘Golden Artist’ apparently goes well with red tulips. I quite fancied a tub of bright red tulips so bought ‘Red Impression’, a Darwin Hybrid, which is lipstick coloured with a near black blotch at the base – sounds lovely doesn’t it. My intention is to plant them in a separate pot next to the pot with ‘Golden Artist’ rather than put them in the same container.
Photograph courtesy of Crocus – Red Impression
There are a vast variety of tulips and some I don’t like, such as the Lily type tulip with their spiky petals, but then it’s all a matter of taste and a good thing we don’t always like the same things.
Whilst spring bulbs look good in flowerbeds, I am going to plant all of my tulips in pots. I already have three pots planted up which include the frilled Parrot tulip in various dark burgundies through to a pale purple/blue. These are sitting outside my kitchen so when the spring arrives I have lots of lovely colourful flowers to greet me when I step outside.
While browsing through the varieties I came across Fostariana, an early flowering tulip and added ‘Sweetheart’ to my shopping basket. This is a lemon/yellow with a creamy band around the top, I thought they looked really pretty and would be a good contrast to the other coloured tulips.
Photograph courtesy of Crocus – Sweetheart
At this point, as difficult as it was, I called a halt to my shopping spree and paid for my purchases, which arrived yesterday just a couple of days after placing my order.
This post reads as though I am plugging Crocus, which I am not, they just happen to be the website I bought my bulbs from. As they say on television, there are other websites available.
My next job is to clear out the pots containing summer plants way beyond the best, clean the pots and get planting. Although it sometimes seem interminable, Winter doesn’t really last that long and I have something to look forward to in the spring.
