TULIP BELIEFS THAT ARE ALL WRONG, AND 

 SOME UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES 



SHERMAN R. DUFFY 



They Are Not Short-Lived, Need Not Be Dug Up Each Year, and May 

 Be Lifted At Any Time. The Phenomena of "Breaking" and "Dropping" 



|LTHOUGH I was born in an Illinois prairie hamlet 

 and of Irish and Welsh lineage, I am convinced 

 nature intended me for an English clergyman. This 

 conclusion is borne in on me most acutely this fall 

 as I realize that it is thirty-five years ago that I planted my 

 first Tulip bulbs. Had not nature's manifest design been 

 thwarted in my case, I might have been a placid English 

 clergyman famous for growing Daffodils and Tulips. There 

 is nothing I more heartily and thoroughly enjoy than grow- 

 ing Tulips. 



FOR years 1 have devoted my autumnal vacation time to 

 inducting thousands of Tulip bulbs into the soil, gloat- 

 ing over their plumpness and sleek brown coats holding out 

 the promise of May day glories while, 1 must confess, a fat 

 and saucy squirrel would romp around me with greedy eyes 

 as if he were saying to himself, "What a fine nut we have 

 here." 



I must add, lest 1 be suspected of being some rare old print 

 effect, that 1 started with Tulips as soon as 1 was old enough 

 to occupy an ingenu speaking and thinking part. 1 turn 

 with envy from the ruffianly every-day life of the United 

 States worker to the bulb growing clergyman of England 

 with particular yearning after reading the Rev. Joseph 

 Jacob's little book on Tulips, the only work in English, so 

 far as 1 know devoted exclusively to this fascinating subject. 

 Envy is further increased by some of the Rev. Engelheart's 

 essays on Daffodils and by some of the magnificent specimens 

 he has raised and introduced. 



THERE is, we are told by abstruse thinkers, a reason 

 for everything provided we can find it. Skunks and 

 Rule 37 of the quarantine regulations which has been feel- 

 ingly referred to in The Garden Magazine baffle my pro- 

 fundity in spite of all my search. 



Just how this 37 rule affects the importation of bulbs, I 

 am not informed. In fact whether it hits them at all or not 

 I can't figure from reading it, but whether it does or not, it 

 seems fair to assume that it will be used as an excuse for 

 boosting prices because many fields in Holland were plowed 

 up for more needed crops and production ceased in England 

 and Ireland to a large extent during the war. 



Therefore it behooves us in so far as we can to maintain 

 our own stocks by growing our own bulbs; which is a very 

 simple matter. 1 have grown my own bulbs for years and 

 maintained the same stock, with few exceptions, without 

 difficulty. 



At first glance there is nothing more obvious than the 

 Tulip when it blazes and flames in the May garden, but 

 on close study it becomes one of the most mysterious of 



garden subjects. In fact there is less real and exact knowl- 

 edge concerning Tulips than any other popular plant that we 

 grow. Its origin is shrouded in mystery. The Darwin Tu- 

 lip's ancestry and birthplace are yet to be penetrated. 



I ran across the Rev. Joseph Jacob's book only a few weeks 

 ago. Many of the traits of the Tulip which had puzzled me 

 I found were catalogued and discussed and others which had 

 not come to my notice were spoken of. 



Two subjects which had puzzled me I find have not been 

 explained. First, why do Tulips "break"? Why is a 

 Parrot? 



I had often read of "breaking"; that is, an old established 

 self-colored variety for no apparent reason would appear 

 striped. In my stock of Tulips maintained for many years. 

 I had noticed this characteristic in a late scarlet that 1 had 

 never been able to identify which came between the Earlies 

 and the Darwins. It came with yellow featherings running 

 half way down the petals. It puzzled me for a time as I had 

 never had such a Tulip, but knowing the bulbs I had planted, 

 it became evident this was an example of "breaking.'' Last 

 spring I had a more pronounced example. 



I had a planting of some 200 Bronze Queen. About one 

 third of them appeared with broad stripes of dark brown. 

 One clump, all from the same parent bulb, showed the orig- 

 inal Bronze Queen, a wide striped buff and dark brown, and 

 a small blossom with finer stripes of dark brown. These 

 Bronze Queens 1 had had only three years. 



I HAVE found the Parrot Tulip the most persistent and 

 long lived of all the varieties I possess. I have never pur- 

 chased a Parrot since the original dozen 1 planted thirty-five 

 years ago, yet they have multiplied and stick around 

 although I do not particularly admire them owing to their 

 floppy habit. 1 find from the Jacob book that the Parrot 

 Tulip is always striped, a " Bizarre," and that its reason for 

 being is one of the mysteries of the bulb. 



There are so many myths in circulation in connection 

 with the growing of the Tulip that 1 believe they should be 

 exploded. 



In the first place, one seldom looks over a bulb catalogue 

 without finding the bald statement that the Tulip is short 

 lived and that it is necessary to replenish the stock fre- 

 quently. This is contrary to my experience as I have main- 

 tained a stock of Tulips for 35 seasons and have most of the 

 original late varieties with which 1 started. 



The Early Tulips I can agree are short lived, at least 1 

 find them so; as to the Late Tulips, the Cottage, Breeder, and 

 Darwin varieties as well as the Bizarres and Bybloems, I can't 

 agree, with one exception. 1 have never been able to keep 

 Clara Butt. Yet friends of mine do not have the same 



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