ance usually began with the seedsman's mixture of Darwins, a fervid 
mass of pink, often, as in my own garden, rendered more glowing by 
being planted at the foot of a mass of pink honeysuckle. I shall never 
forget the temperature of that far-off Decoration Day, when little 
waves of heat rose in visible quivers, from those Tuhps ! I have been 
trying to cool them off ever since! and I think I have at last found 
a way of doing it! 
Next came the wonders of the named varieties, the markings, 
the shades, yes, the colors, for surely those were no colors to be 
called by the old names! The pink dusted with sulphur, the bronze 
veiled with hlac, the cream blushing rose ! And how we gloried in the 
panoply of color, how we paraded it down our borders, regiment after 
regiment, and certainly they were very splendid, and we were very 
proud ! And then we began to see that, as Glutton Brock says, 
"Beautiful as is the color of the Tulip, its greatest beauty consists 
in its form, the shape of its flower, the manner in which it carries its 
flower, and the contrast between the shape and carriage of one flower 
with the shape and carriage of the leaves. All this beauty is lost when 
they are planted in regiments." 
It became necessary then, to find some combinations of Tulips, or 
some combinations of Tulips with other flowers, that would perfectly 
complement each other. 
For several years I worked very hard on a mixture of Tulips, that 
would satisfy me, and after many trials, and much advice asked and 
given, I made the two following — but first I must sa}' that I am 
constitutionally opposed to paying fabulous prices for TuHps, when 
such dreams of beauty can be bought at a moderate price, so that except 
under the most unusual circumstances, I do not use a Tulip costing 
more than ten dollars a hundred, and prefer to have it cost six: 
One each of — 
Margaret Syn., Grekhen — satiny pale pink with green mark- 
ings. 
Dream — the warmest of the true mauves. 
Zephyr — shaded salmon Hlac. 
yEsculapius — a true mulberry. 
Medea — an almost sinister rose, a huge flower. 
Mary Hollis — raspberry with a silvery bloom. 
Clara Butt — ahnost watermelon pink, 
Saes — lavender pink. 
Carl Becker — sahnon old rose, with a quality of the edge of 
the petals suggesting Venetian glass. 
And two Sultan — that small, almost black Tulip. 
Eleven Tuhps The mixture should be at least doubled to give 
any effect, and is far lovelier after it has been planted and left undis- 
turbed a year or two, as then one has not only the natural differences 
44 
