My Garden in Spring 



purple and Faust the best dark purple. In among these 

 various kinds, and always in what we consider the choicest, 

 cosiest place, irrespective of what are its neighbours, we 

 plant my best beloved of all Tulips, a wonderful old Dutch 

 variety called Zomerschoon. It has a groundwork of old 

 ivory or softest primrose heavily striped and flamed with a 

 glorious,glowing salmon-red; the base is sulphur yellow,and 

 in the sunlight casts a primrose glow over the whole interior 

 of the flower, especially in a newly-opened blossom. It is 

 seen at its best in the morning sunlight, and when the first 

 blossoms open I find it hard to tear myself away from them, 

 so intensely do I enjoy the glow of the blend of salmon 

 and primrose tints in their cups. As the flowers age the 

 sulphur fades to ivory white and the red markings deepen 

 a good deal : they are still beautiful, but not so marvellously 

 glowing and subtle as in the day-old blossoms. It is a 

 very old Tulip, and I have a rather poor figure of it in a 

 Dutch book dated 1794, but it has always been scarce, as 

 it does not increase so fast as others, and so has always 

 been rather high in price, but the last two years have seen a 

 change, and now eighteen pence will buy a good bulb of it. 

 The tallest of all Tulips is T.fulgens, one of the pointed- 

 petalled set I have already mentioned. Three feet of stem 

 I should say would be its average height. It is a glowing 

 pure crimson, and its beautiful, soft-yellow base is too pale 

 to be open to an accusation of gaudiness even when seen 

 by the side of so bright a crimson. Some years ago I 

 planted a clump among some patches of Iris ochroleuca, and 

 the effect of the great, sword-shaped leaves of the Iris 

 among the tall Tulips was very good, but the group had to 

 be removed to make way for a new Yew hedge, and I have 

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