TALKING OF TULIPS 
ALICE RATH BONE 
Author of “Playthings for the Adventurous Ignorant,” “Adventures Among 
the Sedums,” “Christmas Roses” and other articles 
A Discursive Expedition in Fact and Fancy by a 
Grower of Tulips who Hitches her Wheelbarrow to 
Whimsy and Enlivens Gardening with Imagination 
HAT quaint old book “Flora’s Interpreter”—- avowedly 
sentimental—declaims in rhapsody over a red Tulip: 
“What marvel that a heart like mine 
Enraptured by thy charms should be” 
and at sight of the first Tulip after the long, neutral-tinted win¬ 
ter, no great exaggeration of sentiment is likely to be felt in 
those lines. Now it happens to be a very bright red Tulip that, 
in a far corner of the garden known by me best of all, heralds the 
gay procession so soon to follow; but whether the rapturous 
excitement over its charms be wholly exultant, or tempered by 
alarm, depends upon the gardener’s state of preparedness for 
the tulip-time display. 
If all be ready—beds made, paths neatly swept, the spring 
garden cleaning well over—then is the red flare of that first 
Tulip a vibrant note of joy. In the event, however, of un¬ 
readiness, the herald’s trumpet call is discordant and startles, 
like being suddenly sprung out upon, with resounding whoops, 
by a mischievous small boy from behind an innocent looking 
door! 
But after the first shock of dismay, the belated gardener ac¬ 
cepts the challenge as a call “to arms,” and falls to with re¬ 
newed energy, lest the entire parade pass her way amid untidy 
surroundings. And such a condition of things would never do 
at all. 
For the prettiest, freshest, most welcome show of the garden 
year, everything should be “Dutch clean” along the line of 
WHEN SPRING TOUCHES MISS RATHBONE’S GARDEN 
Ail sorts of things leap to delighted life under the warm breath of May in this 
garden planted and cared for by understanding hands (at Chatham, New York) 
THE TULIP WHITE SWAN 
With gracefully inclined heads so reminiscent of the feath¬ 
ered friend whose name they borrowed these Tulips 
are lovely too when combined with Golden Alyssum 
march of our flowers from Holland. “ From Holland,” or “the 
Netherlands,” it is most natural to say of the Tulip, at first 
thought. It should, of course, be said “from the Orient,” via 
“the level Holland country, where, like a fillip for the eye, the 
flower fields light up the gray land with color, like jewels set in 
platinum or silver.” When, however, the Tulip’s place in the 
arts is considered, its Oriental habitat at once comes to mind—- 
the lovely Picotee’s pointed form and the lily-like retroflexa; 
the round or oval shapes among the Cottages; the square cut 
Darwin—all are suggestive of beautiful design and of Oriental 
use of such design. 
It is indeed a far cry from its use in early Persian illuminated 
manuscripts to early American doings, yet an echo of that cry 
may be heard from our great-grandmothers’ time, when a red 
Tulip, set between a pair of green leaves, 
was a favorite quilt pattern—done in 
applique on squares of white muslin. 
To this day, it sometimes happens 
that a springtime drive is enlivened by 
the sight of one of these Tulip quilts, 
gay to a degree, hung out for an airing 
in its own door yard. 
There seems to be a sort of domestic, 
as well as decorative, quality in a Tulip 
that makes it good to have in simple 
home surroundings. Once upon a rather 
recent time (in a region settled by the 
Dutch) a cottage dining room was 
planned around a Tulip thought. 
Wherever that cheerful flower motif was 
in accord with dark old furniture and 
the corner-cupboard’s store of blue-and- 
white, it appeared, the Tulip touch hold¬ 
ing everything well together. The 
small-paned window of this little room 
looks out upon the garden’s Tulips, and 
it looks in upon them, too, in their sea¬ 
son. For then the Tulip room’s bowls 
and vases hold the flowers of its choice 
fresh and gay; and while early Chryso- 
lora and the later La Merveille are in 
bloom, the room is filled with most de¬ 
lightful fragrance. 
There is much to catch a whimsical 
fancy in Tulip names. Some are inter- 
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