The greatest advance has occurred in developing new and different tulip bulbs.
A most brilliant contribution has been the increasingly popular species tulips, which bloom early in the spring and have unusual colors.
New Hybrids Of Tulipa Kaufmanniana
New hybrids of Tulipa kaufmanniana are excellent for the rock garden or the front of a border.
These include:
- Galileo, a creamy-yellow flower, outside red with a creamy edge
- Johann Strauss, white with outside spotted with red
- Vivaldi, pale yellow with red base
One of the most spectacular tulips introduced recently is the mammoth fosteriana Red Emperor, which displays a bright vermilion-scarlet flower.
Interesting Greigi Hybrids
There are interesting Greigi hybrids that may vie for honors within the next few years.
Single and double early tulips should not be neglected in the garden picture.
With their many petals, the double earlies have shown tremendous improvement with the new varieties Wilhelm Kordes, blending orange and yellow, and Aga Khan, golden yellow with orange and salmon tones.
Triumph tulips help to fill the gap between the earliest and the May-flowering tulips. A fragrant variety, Bruno Walter, is a beautiful golden brown, outside shaded purple; another novelty is Rose Beauty of rosy red.
May-Flowering Tulips
Among the newer May-flowering tulips in the Cottage class, mention should be made of Princess Margaret Rose, a golden yellow color with a broad orange-red margin.
Another Blanca should become the outstanding white Golden Duchess, a Lily-flowering type, which is a novelty that deserves attention.
Regarding recent Darwin introductions, Smiling Queen promises to be an extraordinary pink.
Queen of the Night, an improvement over La Tulipe Noire, is gaining more acceptance, as is Glacier in pure white.
There are several new Parrots that are most intriguing. The name Black Parrot is its own description.
Pierson, of dark crimson, fragrant Orange Favorite in a lovely shade of orange, and Discovery in rosy pink are newcomers that show full promise of springtime beauty.
Most Popular Spring Flowering Bulbs
One of the most popular Spring flowering bulbs is the daffodil. Of the hundreds of varieties listed, perhaps the most prominent are the Trumpets.
There is the mammoth-flowered Mount Hood or the large creamy-white Imperator in white.
Among the bicolors, with white perianth and yellow trumpet, the most outstanding newer representative is Music Hall.
Golden Harvest and Rembrandt are gaining in popularity in the uniform yellow class.
There are also medium-crowned beauties that have varying colors, such as yellows with red cups, whites with yellow cups, and whites with yellow cups edged from orange to red.
Carlton is a soft clear yellow throughout, while another newcomer, Semper Avanti, displays a creamy white perianth with the orange-red cup.
The bunch-flowered daffodils, or Poetaz types, continue to delight garden enthusiasts. Scarlet Gem offers a deep golden-yellow perianth and an orange-red cup.
A very new variety to remember for the future is Cragford, with several white flowers sporting orange-red cups; meanwhile Geranium in white and scarlet is outstanding.
Informal Or Formal Plantings
For informal or formal plantings, consider the fragrant spikes of hyacinths or combined with the early single and double tulips.
Within the next few years, many exceptional novelties are scheduled.
Some newer types becoming more readily available include the pure white Edelweiss, the soft rose Anne Marie, the “red” Jan Bos, and the Eton blue Ostara.
Plant Snowdrops
To begin the season, plant some snowdrops, naturalized under trees. Soon after, you could enjoy the scented blue flowers of Scilla bifolia, or the later Scilla sibirica Spring Beauty, a recent superior introduction.
For planting in the perennial border with Darwin tulips, select Scilla campanulate. They are available in blue, white, and pink, and the newer varieties, such as Queen of the Blues, are very interesting.
Glory-of-the-Snow
Chionodoxa (Glory-of-the-Snow) is often neglected in the garden scheme. Most notable is luciliae, with broad clusters of star-shaped heavenly blue flowers.
There are also sardensis, a more intense blue, and gigantea, a lighter blue, with two or three large flowers on its stem.
Great charmers are the dainty grape hyacinths, in clumps or naturalized amongst shrubs or under trees.
Muscari armeniacum is the most prominent blue, but there is also a white form, sometimes called Pearls of Spain.
44659 by Margaret Herbst