15 feeb 
Explanation of planting plan: 1, Mahogany and darker brown breeders. Dot or high light, Pride of Haarlem. 2, Maroon blacks. 3, Purple and violet blacks. Dot planting for 
both, Baronne de la Tonnaye. 4, Rose with purple shadings. Pride of Haarlem just fills the bill. 5, Lilac or “ wine red.” The largest individual colony. Cardinal Manning. 6, Lav- 
ender and heliotrope. Dot plant. Bronze Queen. 7, Salmon pink grading into salmon scarlet. 1, Small group of brown and mahogany repeated. 8, Cerise and bright scarlets. 
9, Vermilions. 10, Crimsons. 11, Light rose and purplish rose shades with 12, Buff between them, a beautiful combination. 13, Pale yellows and creams. 14, Deep rose shades! 
15, White edged rose, Picotee or Sweet Nancy. 16, Light brown and apricot. 17, Crimson scarlet. A splash of Gesneriana spathulata major and opp of the most striking features of 
the bed. 18, White and pale shades. 19, Orange scarlets, oranges, yellow and scarlet combinations and bright yellow. Note: The small unnumbered circles appearing in the plant- 
ing plan indicate the small groups by way of contrast. The one between 3 and 7, for instance, is Mrs. Cleveland, a delicate pink, between Velvet King and Clara Butt 
Color Scheming for the Darwin Tulips 
SHERMAN R. DUFFY, "i 
SUGGESTED TYPICAL COMBINATIONS FOR THE SMALLEST GARDEN AND A PRACTICAL METHOD OF COLOR 
SCHEMING FOR THE LARGEST- SOME FINE VARIETIES SELECTED 
I T IS truly an ill wind that blows nobody 
good and when the family steed which 
through the inevitable flight of time had 
become merely an heirloom finally demised 
and I inherited the use of the pasture lot he 
was wont to infest, the ambition of many years 
was realized. I planted a Tulip garden. 
Moreover, I placed upon this Tulip garden 
the commonest blight of the hectic horticul- 
turist, a color scheme. 
Color schemes are the measles of gardening. 
Everybody has to have ’em although they 
do no good to the victim and generally aflFect his 
eyesight for some little time. 
But if one must have a color 
scheme, the only safe, sane 
way to do it is with Darwin 
Tulips because one can’t 
possibly go wrong. There- 
fore I can say that my color 
scheme was a glittering, 
spectacular success. It was 
assured in advance. Noth- 
ing could hurt it. 
Personally I believe a 
garden to be an individual 
manifestation. At least, I 
think it ought to be. If a 
man plants Petunia purples 
and Marigold oranges in 
juxtaposition and is happy 
over it, he has that kind of 
a soul and there is no use 
arguing with him. If he 
Jekylled over his garden 
with a pale gray cast, it 
might be artistic, but he 
wouldn’t be happy; and a 
gard^ primarily is for per- 
sonal happiness or it should 
not be at all. 
This color scheme was 
engineered by a fellow tu- 
lipomaniac who is an artist 
by trade. It was made by 
mutual agreement and a 
careful consideration of the 
stock of bulbs in hand with 
the emendations by way of 
purchase necessary to bring 
the main idea to complete 
fruition or more properly 
speaking, inflorescence. 
1 herefore, it seemed to me 
to be much more intelli- 
gently conceived than the usual extraneous 
chromatic night-mare and by a popular vote, 
unanimous, too, it was a success. 
And now that it is done it must be done 
some more, for there is no such thing as 
perfection in gardening and always something 
seems to remain that may be improved. 
Loving friends have forbidden me to lay 
sacrilegious hands on this Tulip patch quoting 
me the ancient adage of letting well enough 
alone, but, the joint authors and collaborators 
will endeavor to improve it even if it seems to 
be trying to gild the Lily to those who never 
thrust a trowel into the soil and know nothing 
of the thrills thereof. 
The start of this Tulip garden was one bed 
85 feet long and 15 feet wide. There are four 
or five other beds yet to be organized, but 
this one patch was the chef-d’oeuvre. There 
are between four and five thousand bulbs in 
this bed and all but 500 are of my own raising; 
that is to say, I started with not more than 
six or a dozen of the better Darwin, Cottage, 
and Breeder Tulips. The bed is devoted 
entirely to the late Tulips. I gave up growing t 
the ea'‘ly Tulips in quantity some time ago. 
Having limited space, I di- 'V 
vide the spring garden 
between Daffodils and Nar- '|! 
cissus and late Tulips, re- X 
taining only a few of the ?l! 
early Tulips. I regard one |l| 
Darwin Tulip as worth at Ml 
least a dozen single earlies. 
I do not agree in the least jj 
with those dealers who in- 
form us in their catalogues I 
that the late Tulips, par- II 
ticularly the Darwins, are w 
short lived in our climate. A 
The wish is father to the W; 
thought, as it encourages J' 
frequent purchasing and ■! 
careless cultivation. ■ 
With simple faith and |l 
childlike trust in Provi- J; 
dence, thousands of people |l 
annually buy tens of thous- ■ 
ands of Tulips, chuck them ■' 
into the ground and leave ■ 
them to do their worst, and Aj 
they do. Faith without ft, 
works is dead, and so are I 
Tulip bulbs. The great 1 
essential in maintaining i 
Tulips and growing good I 
quality bulbs is annua‘1 
digging. It is an enormous 
task. I’ll admit, and I know 
that digging that 4,000 odd 
bulbs will be hard work; 
but I can gloat over a fine 
crop of Tulip bulbs as en- 
thusiatically as a market 
gardener can over a fine 
crop of onions. The task 
of labelling is likewise a 1 
heavy one of which I 
Plant your Tulips now for spring effects. The late flowering Darwins bloom with the Lilac bushes 
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