No chocolate goodies on offer this week but a 'Brownie' in the shape of a single tulip. It's the only stem that I could bring myself to snip for today's 'In A Vase On Monday'. My love-hate relationship with tulips is long standing as I have mentioned in previous posts. I love the flowers but not the foliage and also I've never been able to grow them well. Maybe the bulbs sense my apprehension at planting time and behave accordingly. Tulip bulbs also feature on the menu for the local squirrel army so it's a battle of wits from day one of planting onwards. Despite this I'm still always tempted by the catalogues and try a handful of new varieties each year. This spring I have one or two modest successes including 'Exotic Emperor' and the still to fully open 'Mistress Mystic', also known as 'Mistress Grey'.
I also have three pots of the peony flowered 'Brownie' which I'm quite chuffed about. From what I can gather 'Brownie' is a relatively new tulip. The colour is a coppery-brown flecked with golden-yellow and red. It appears more orange in the photo than it does to the eye. The vase is last week's school milk bottle and the only prop was accidental. As I was taking the photo I noticed a skeletonised leaf on the wall, it's colour echoing the tulip flower.
Meanwhile the greenhouse is slowly filling with little trays and pots of seedlings, which will hopefully feature in vases to come over the next few months. The only bit of bad news apart from the dismal sweet pea germination rate, is that the world's biggest spider has taken up residence. It is lurking around and about the heated sand bench. Himself insists that the spider is more frightened of me than vice-versa but I remain to be convinced. I'm hoping that when I finally turn the heat off it might scuttle out in search of another snug hidey-hole.
Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for being such an excellent hostess. She is also showcasing tulips this week and also treating us to an early taste of summer. Do visit if you haven't already.
That is one beautiful tulip, perfect just on its own!
ReplyDeleteI've got this variety in a big glazed ceramic pot in the front garden (tastefully disguising a drain cover). Brownie is planted round the rim, with the taller bronzey coloured single Brown Sugar in the centre, followed by Nectaroscordum siculum. Last year the display benefitted from some self-sown Verbena bonariensis, courtesy of next door, but I fear the erratic winter may have done for them. Have similar containers in the back garden, with varieties such as La Belle Epoque and Cafe Noir added to the mix.
ReplyDeleteI used to have terrible trouble with squirrels getting my tulips (and anything else they saw as fair game), but I now plant them in containers with a thick layer of grit on top. Seems to be working so far.
My current vase of flowers in the front window if a bunch of forget-me-nots. The allotment next to ours gets choked with them at this time of year, and they've self seeded into some things we've brought home. Best way to keep them from taking over is to find a use for them and cut them.
I haven't seen Brownie before and it really is a stunner. I'm with you on not being able to bear cutting too many tulips as they look so wonderful in the garden.
ReplyDeleteDo you know, I wasn't taken with 'Brownie' until I saw your photo! And I am a total tulip nut. I saw 'Brownie' at Sarah Raven's garden a week or so ago and it featured in my blog, but your simple staging of it with bright green foliage beats all the more elaborate combinations I saw from Queen Tulip herself!
ReplyDeleteSquirrels after your tulips? Gosh, I hadn't even considered that... And ferocious spiders in your greenhouse? You really do have problems with wild beasts in your neck of the woods, Anna! Brownie is a very attractive tulip and it's a shame we can't lop tulip leaves off like Monty tells us we can do with alliums! Your little skeleton is a sweet little addition - I love to find little gems like this too.
ReplyDeleteI love tulips but so do our deer so goodbye tulips....this one is so unusual and I love the coloring. I am glad you snipped one to show us!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's one special tulip!
ReplyDeleteI love tulips and after fighting critters last year, I put some chicken wire about the beds where they are planted. Hopefully that will help. And I am with you on the sweet peas-- this was my second year trying to grow them. the germinate rate is ridiculous, and the few that did germinate died when we had an unusually hot day the day after we had snow. Ugh, this weather. But this tulip you presented today is different and almost reminds me of a peony. It's so pretty.
ReplyDeleteSome of our sweet peas were slow to start but are now growing faster,
ReplyDeleteI love it, I am growing it in a pot with Belle Epoque and they look wonderful together. I grow most of my tulips in big pots now, you get so much more impact.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a wonderful tulip and a very unusual colour. Or colours, I should say. I hope you manage to re-home the spider soon, I wouldn't fancy that either.
ReplyDeleteThat's gorgeous, I must look for that one! Perfect as a single stem.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have the heart to cut more of those pretty tulips either, Anna! I try tulips here at periodic intervals but they truly detest my climate so it's really a pointless exercise in frustration. As to the spider, you need to send a cat in to take care of it - cats can be counted on for few services but that's one of them.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beauty! Good choice to cut this one - love that colour!
ReplyDeletePretty color!
ReplyDeleteI hope that spider packed his baggage and moved away!