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SW London
A semi-mature, hardy individual who tries to get away with doing as little as possible in gardening as in life, still expects the best results & wonders why she is frequently disappointed! She likes to keep a photographic record of everything, good & frequently bad!

Friday 21 May 2010

Five tulips do not a drift make….

029Idiot! Me that is. Those of you who have stuck by me may remember that I have been re-vamping a triangular flower bed in my small garden, enthused by a garden at Hampton Court Flower Show last year. It is actually pretty much nothing like the planting in the show garden, but it got me to dig up & re-plant with a vague nod in the direction of the glorious show I saw.

057Purple tulips 012I wanted to plant some tulips in the bed so bought a selection of different purples.Being a Lazy Trollop I bought a ready made selection thinking it would save me matching them up myself. 5 each of 5 selections. It was a pleasure planting them in the freshly dug ground which had been topped up generously with compost courtesy of the compost bin & the council. I planted the bulbs in drifts, snaking between the other plants & was excited at the prospect of seeing the fruits of my labours……………..

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Purple tulips 005 Purple tulips 007Purple tulips 003

Idiot! Of course  5 tulips don’t make anything like a drift; how could I have even thought that was possible. Although the flowers were lovely, indeed some of them still are, they just looked like a random scattering of tulips across the whole bed. On top of that the heavy rain just as the stems had reached their full height meant they flopped all over the place & the cat rampaging through the bed to leap over the fence to next door added to the general look of chaos & mess.

Don’t get me wrong, as individuals they are beautiful, but as a group, annoying & not achieving their full potential!

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Damn!

6 comments:

  1. I think you would have been better just having two types and more of them, maybe one that flowered a little later than the other.

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  2. But they do look very artistic and natural Ms B! And, in a gorgeous colour scheme. I will blog about some of my 'planting' disasters one of these days..should give you a laugh

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  3. But still beautiful.
    Weren't we saying formal planting of tulips is a bit too rigid for many tastes?
    Anonjan

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  4. But Lazy Trollop! - I think they are delicious! (or perhaps you are a rather good photographer?...Am inspired...tulips are the thing I most missed this year, having moved house in feb....never thought of going purple...but now....?!

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  5. never saw the source of your inspiration, but I still like your purple tulips, all standing tall.
    double up for next yr?
    I made non-thinking mistake of planting garish free bulbs. it wasn't even the advertised gift, but vile subs.

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  6. You DO need at least 20 Tulips to make a decent size drift, so that you can realise the intensity of the colour.

    The Tulips which you have on your blog do not look as if they have very strong stems.

    Please take a look at our web-site, all of our tulips are guaranteed, all come from sustainable stocks and will provide you with outstanding results. We have been in business since 1860 and have this year attained our 60th Gold Medal at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

    Visit :-www.blomsbulbs.com

    We also have a wholesale catalogue for large orders.

    ReplyDelete