Tulips 



catches the immense flowers half open and weights them 

 with water till they bend over and snap, and I have seen 

 a bed decimated in this manner in a few minutes. A bed 

 of Clara Butt comes next, and her lovely, soft, warm pink 

 blends well with the scarlet on one side and the deep rich 

 maroon-crimson of King Harold in the next bed. The 

 fine old scarlet Gesneriana, with its wonderful blue eye, is 

 one of the most effective of all Tulips, and so fills two 

 beds on this terrace, and looks very well between King 

 Harold and a bed of the still deeper brown-purple of 

 Philippe de Comines, described in bulb lists as velvety- 

 black. Next we come to the two circular central beds on 

 either side of a fine tripodal stone vase, and these are 

 filled with two yellow varieties in alternating rings. Retro- 

 flexa flowers first and goes over rather too soon, so 

 Parisian Beauty, which is a later bloomer, then takes up 

 its duties and keeps the yellow beds bright to the end. We 

 have generally had a bed of La Noire for the next, but 

 although it looks well next to the yellow, it is too dark to 

 be effective from a distance, and most likely will be re- 

 placed by something lighter next season. Europe is my 

 favourite of the glowing orange-salmon shades ; it is one 

 of the few Darwins with a pure white base, and the bed 

 devoted to it is a lovely sight when full of its flowers. 

 The next bed we thought rather a bold venture when we 

 first planned it, for we were half in doubt whether the 

 cool lilac tint of Erguste would look well between the two 

 salmon scarlets, Europe of the last bed and Laurentia of 

 the next, which are very similar in general outside appear- 

 ance, but Laurentia differs in possessing a rim of pale blue 

 round the white of the base. However, we were delighted 



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