MAY FLOWERING TULIPS 



WHAT endless varieties there are of May flowering Tulips, Culture 

 and what a delight they bring one every year ! How of May 

 much too the gardens miss that do not grow them ! Tulips 

 The reason of my own love for them, perhaps, is that they do well 

 here, rather appreciating than objecting to lime, and benefiting 

 from the dry ness of our soil. Coming from Southern Europe, or 

 the hotter East, the bulbs need warmth to dry them thoroughly, 

 and thus enable them to stand the winter. In cold soils they 

 must be lifted every year when their leaves have died; they 

 should then be dried in the sun and stored till autumn. 

 Most of the Darwin and Cottage varieties are far easier 

 of management in this respect than the earlier kinds, and can 

 be left in the ground till they have increased so much that they 

 need division. Deep planting is a secret of success ; they like 

 well to be one foot underground, and no manure should be 

 allowed near the bulbs. 



Most of the May Tulips grown are florists' varieties, 

 many of them derived from T. Gesneriana, but there are also 

 many fine species, for instance T. dldieri alba a lovely, 

 sweet-scented white, and 1. retroflexa a yellow with curved, 

 lily-like petals, which should be in every garden. Although not 

 quite so apparent, the Lily form is seen again in T. elegans, 

 and in a slighter degree in such a Tulip as Picofee. 



There are two great classes of May-flowering Tulips, 

 the so-called Darwin and Cottage. The former generally 

 have round, cup-shaped flowers set on sturdy, upright 



Q 121 



