Tulipmania

The classic Dutch method of planting tulips is color-coordinated, perfect rows. It makes a display like nothing else for a few short weeks. In formal (and rich!) gardens, the plants are then pulled up and thrown away to make room for annuals, and the beds are designed again with fresh bulbs in the fall.

For home gardeners, this seems wasteful, not to mention lots of work. But the problem with keeping spring bulbs in the ground is they need to die back naturally after bloom to replenish the bulb. This leaves an unsightly mess of yellow drooping leaves for several weeks, just when you want your garden looking spiffy for early summer.

I was reading in a magazine (Martha Stewart, again) that it's become trendy to naturalize tulips and place bulbs more-or-less randomly in perennial beds. Once the tulips fade, the other flowers take over while the tulip leaves have a chance to die back and regenerate.

When you've been doing something for years out of simple laziness, it's always nice to hear from Martha that you've been stylish all along. I haven't planted new tulips bulbs for a long time, but plenty still come back willy-nilly each April. They don't multiply in the ground, but the big yellows and reds are especially long-lived.
Tulip season doesn't last long, but what a wonderful flower. In fact, you could say tulips are the world's most coveted flower. Ever heard the phrase Tulipmania?

Ambrosius Bosschaert