Tag Archives | tulips

The Cultivated Palette Series – Tulips

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I have decided to make this post short and sweet because that is how my tulips are this year! Our record breaking mild winter did not give the bulbs the cooling period they need for good stem length. Ideally they require a good 12-14 weeks ‘cold period’ to produce quality cutting stems. I think I will try to order the bulbs as early as possible this year and store them in our chiller to pre-cool them before planting in November, if and only if it is cold enough.

Anyway, looking back at taller years, here are some of the varieties and cultivation methods I use for luscious blooms to grace my March and April floral work.

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I opt to grow the majority of my tulips under cover which normally results in better stem length as they get slightly drawn and unblemished perfect petals. Planting them closely together also helps, no more than 10 cm apart. The only downside to this being if we get a warm spell in April (which any normal person would be very happy about) as it tends to make them all come at once, early, middle and late cultivars.

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I often get gasps of horror when people watch me harvesting tulips as I just pull them out, bulb and all.

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The bulb is then cut off and composted and so it becomes an annual (albeit expensive) crop.

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There are many advantages to growing them this way; even more stem length as you get the extra bit under the ground, bulbs are dibbed in shallowly so no trenches or backbreaking work, the ground is cleared and ready for the next annual crop and it means you get to try new varieties every year!

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Talking of varieties I am a sucker for anything with ‘new’ written next to it but I do have some reliable favourites that I grow year on year. My favourite groups are peony/double and viridiflora types.

I always start the season with lots of ‘Verona’ a pale yellow peony tulip with decent stem length for an early double type and such a long vase life.

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These are closely followed by ‘Blue Diamond’ an unusual antique, puce colour and two classics ‘Angelique’ and ‘Mont Tacoma’.

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The recently introduced ‘La Belle Epoque’ rounds off the season with a mouthwatering colour combination of coffee and peachy pink.

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The viridiflora types are characterized by a green stripe on the the petals. My favourite is ‘Spring Green’ because they go with anything and are effortlessly stylish. This pink variety ‘Greenland’ has been paired with a coral single late variety called ‘Menton’ and pear blossom.

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For stem length, Lily-flowered varieties are worth trying. Their pointed petal tips and hourglass shape bring a contrasting elegance to the fuller peony and parrot types. They tend to flower a bit later as well giving some succession to the tulip harvest.

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Floppy Parrot tulips are definitely happier in my tunnels where they are sheltered from heavy Spring showers. Black Parrot is great for a sophisticated look and Flaming Parrot or Apricot for some Dutch Master decadence.

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To source your tulips and see a whole host of other varieties I would recommend looking at Peter Nyssen or Gee Tee.

They both supply good quality and reasonably priced bulbs, which is important if you are going to use them as an annual in your cutting beds.

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When conditioning tulips I just put a couple of inches of water in the bucket, I find if they are immersed in deep water it ruins the leaves.

Photographs (mostly) by Clare West.

 

Next up will be my favourite Spring flower – Ranunculus.

‘All of the Garden’ Bouquet

Clare West (photographer and lover of flowers – great combo) was with us again last month, you can see her blog post about what we are up to in the garden here.

I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to record the picking and making of our new All of the Gardenbouquets. They are exactly what they describe – everything that is in flower that week gathered into a gorgeous garden bouquet.

We started in the field by picking my favourite Narcissi variety ‘Geranium’ – wonderful scent and a good stem length for hand tied bouquets.

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 Next it was in to the polytunnel to pull a few tulips, this one is a lily-flowered variety called ‘Purple Dream’. People are always alarmed to see me pulling the whole tulip out of the ground and snipping off the bulb. We treat them as annuals so that harvesting and clearing the ground for the next crop is done in one go. The bulbs are composted and I get to choose new varieties for the following year.

 

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Once everything is picked, it is off to the flower studio to assemble my bounty.

 

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All the flowers and foliage are stripped of lower leaves and laid out in piles on the table. The more variety of materials the more textured and natural it will look, ideally I like to use about twelve. Here I am using (from left clockwise) Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’, Eucalyptus parvifolia, Rosemary, Pussy Willow, Tulips ‘Blue Diamond’ and ‘Apricot Beauty’, Hellebore ‘Harvington Double Yellow’, Pieris, Anemones ‘Galilee Pastel Mix’, Arum italicum and Narcissi ‘Geranium’.

 

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Now I flex my hand muscles and get to work, I will keep going until everything on the table is used.

 

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The bouquet is tied off with raffia and will be aquapacked and placed into one of our specially designed transit boxes. Off for next day delivery to one lucky recipient! You can order one of our mail order bouquets here.

 

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Caterpillar Capers

When
I was growing vegetables full time, I looked down on cloches. Too far
down, too much bending down and far too much pegging down. All that
ground level shenanigans, just way too undignified in order to gain a
very small ribbon of protection. And then you can't see whatever bad
omens may be hidden beneath the plastic, either weeds, pest or diseases, and a
false sense of security was guaranteed.

 


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 So
I now find that I have spent the autumn and winter thus far wrestling
with a caterpillar tunnel, which I now realize is just a really
expensive and humongous
cloche. I
can't even stand up in it, which is the first major design fault you
might observe. However, I am limited by the 6m standard sizing of the
PVC pipe hoops, resulting in a mildly stooping scenario.

 

  
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The
idea comes from the USA and has been covered well by the Growing For
Market
community (NB. They call polytunnels 'hoophouses' over there).
There is an introduction to the concept here by
Lynn Byczynski.

The main features are portability, no footings, hoops that fit over
steel rebar 'pegs', and rope lashings (lots and lots!) that produce a
segmented appearance and the caterpillar profile. After spending a
small fortune reskinning a twin-span polytunnel this year, we thought
we'd give it a go, especially since you can move them to fresh ground
so easily.


We
played it safe however and have only put tulips in it this autumn,
just in case. There have been a few hiccups and several improvements
along the way, notably bigger and bigger hoops, after the Mark One, pictured below.



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It has been keeping
me slightly fretful on stormy nights but we'll keep you posted about
the spring blooms and whether we can get enough air flow through it.
It has seemed to cope with the winter snow so far though, and near
flooding, although it may just yet prove to be the ultimate vole
hotel….

 


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The River Thames coming up to say 'hello' last year.

 

Ashley
Pearson

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