124 



T H E G A R D E N MAGAZINE 



October, 1910 



wet soil. Plant with a trowel, so 

 that there may be no danger of 

 the bulbs hanging, and put half 

 an inch of sand in the hole. The 

 bulbs may go into the ground any 

 time in October before the ground 

 is so cold as to check root growth. 

 Quite as strongly he advises pro- 

 tection from the west wind; his 

 ideal situation is the front of a 

 west border. Both cottage and 

 Darwin tulips suffer as much 

 from wind as from low tempera- 

 ture, and, if exposed, they should 

 be protected by a canvas wind- 

 break when coming into bloom. 

 If exhibition blooms of either 

 are wanted, some protection from 

 the sun is also necessary, as the 

 lighter colors spot more than in 

 the case of the early varieties. 

 Another point, cottage tulips must 

 not be allowed to freeze in spring; 

 always keep some litter at hand 

 to throw over them after the beds 

 are uncovered if weather condi- 

 tions require it. For the best re- 

 sults the' bulbs must be taken up 

 when the foKage has dried down 

 after flowering, and in any case 

 they would better not be left in 

 a bed or border more than three 

 years without resetting. 



There is an endless variety of 

 cottage tulips, many of recent 

 garden origin having been added 

 to the old kinds. All told, it is 

 probable that from two hundred 

 to two hundred and fifty could be 

 brought together. Now and then 

 the same variety will be listed 

 under two or three names; but, 

 fortunately, there is a tendency 

 on the part of the dealers to use 

 the synonyms in their catalogues. 

 This confusion is natural enough. 

 Some of the varieties have been in 

 the market, as such, for half a 

 century, but cottage tuHps have 

 been popular no more than a de- 

 cade, and it is only some twenty 

 years ago that dealers began rescuing them 

 from the old gardens. The same variety 

 occasionally came to light in more than one 

 place, and perhaps was officially identified 

 by one man and given an original name by 

 another. Even where the names are distinct 

 there is sometimes only a scarcely perceptible 

 variation. It should be borne in mind dis- 

 tinctly that no one list exhausts the array of 

 varieties. Any dealer, however, will gladly 

 submit as long a Hst as desired if the request 

 is made in June — when the foreign orders 

 go in. 



The best short list of the cheaper varie- 

 ties, by actual test in American gardens, is as 

 follows: 



Bouton d'Or; best dark yellow. 



Fairy Queen; heliotrope, pale 

 margin. 



Fulgens; glowing red. 



Golden Crown; yellow, feathered 



La Merveille; orange red. 



The forms of the Cottage tulips are greatly varied. From top to bottom 

 there are: Retrofiexa, yellOTXf; Piootee, white, edged pink; Isabella, almond 

 yellow and carmine ; Vitelllna, yellow^ ; Golden Crowm, yellow, edged red 



Parisian Yellow; pale yellow. 



Striped Beauty; white, flaked rose crim- 

 son. 



Picotee; white, rose pink margin. 



Rose Mignon; cream white, striped pink. 



Isabella ; almond yellow and pink. 



Naturally, the prices of cottage tulips 

 vary according to the rarity of the variety. 

 Bouton d'Or, for instance, is only three cents 

 a bulb, while the Lizard and Fawn cost ten. 

 Innocence twenty, and John Ruskin twenty- 

 five. Between these extremes there are thirty- 

 six easily obtainable varieties, more than 

 half of which are five cents and under. 

 In quantity they run from twenty-five cents 

 to two dollars and a half a dozen and from 

 one dollar and seventy-five cents to eighteen 

 dollars a hundred. 



A more expensive list of about the same 

 length would be: 



The Fawn; pale buff and blush. 



Firefly; orange red, flaked yellow. 



yellow 



red. 



Flava; lemon yellow. 



Gesneriana lutea pallida; pale 

 yellow. 



Glare of the Garden; dark 

 crimson scarlet. 



Inglescombe Pink; rose, flushed 

 salmon. 



Innocence; pure white. 



The Lizard; bronze, crimson 

 and deep yellow. 



John Ruskin ; apricot and 

 pink. 



Orange Globe; brillliant or- 

 ange. 



Vitellina; pale yellow. 



The Moor; dark maroon crim- 

 son. 



L'^nion Jack; white, striped with 

 amaranth. 



Some of the varieties show curi- 

 ous changes of color. Picotee, 

 for instance, opens pure white. 

 Then a faint crimson lake red 

 appears on the edge of the petals 

 and spreads so far over them that 

 the blossom is actually pink when 

 it "passes off." Golden Crown 

 opens pale primrose yellow. 

 Gradually it deepens; then a 

 faint line of red appears on the 

 edge and broadens until there is 

 a general orange tone. Isabella 

 passes from almond yellow into 

 a deep pink. 



All cottage tulips are called 

 tall, but the heights are by no 

 means uniform, depending some- 

 what on local circumstances. Six- 

 teen to twenty-six inches may be 

 called the natural range in this 

 country, according to the variety. 

 Mrs. Moon, a superb golden yel- 

 low, is catalogued in England at 

 twenty-eight inches, and Fulgens 

 and Gesneriana lutea pallida at 

 twenty-four. 



Similarly, the "late May" 

 blooming period is to be taken 

 only in a general sense. The 

 following table shows the dates 

 in May when twenty-six typical 

 varieties were in their first prime in the 

 neighborhood of New York City last year; 



May 2. Gala Beauty, La Panachee, Retro- 

 flexa. Golden Crown; 



May 7. Le Reve; 



May 10. Fulgens, Mrs. Moon, Rosalind, 

 Union Jack, Vitellina; 



May 14. Fairy Queen, Gesneriana Major, 

 Picotee, Sunset, York and Lancaster; 



May 16. Fawn, Firefly, Inglescombe Scar- 

 let, Inglescombe Pink, John Ruskin, 

 Leghorn Bonnet, La Merveille, Miss 

 Wilmot, Silver Queen, Striped Beauty; 



May 22. Royal White. 



This lateness of bloom makes the cot- 

 tage tulips less desirable for formal beds 

 than the early kind. As a rule, it is 

 wiser to use the dwarfer varieties for 

 such purposes, the taller ones fitting better 

 into bold border lines and masses and 

 naturalistic effects. 



