84 
The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
La Tristesse can be very lovely, but is changeable and imper¬ 
manent; yet even so, I always want it. The two I now rank 
highest are Remembrance and Ronald Gunn. The former 
is a little variable, but at its best it is a wonderful flower, with 
subtle pink and blue lights running through its lavender. The 
second never varies, and is a flower of vivid and unmistakable 
personality, very blue in tone, the centre of the petals a deep 
blue-heliotrope, the edges a bluish white. It is not very tall, 
and never opens particularly well; but having once seen its 
color, you cannot do without it. Two highly praised lavenders 
are Melicette and Duchess of Hohenberg; they can be very 
fine, but 1 do not like so red a shade of lavender, and indeed, 
with me, Melicette is hardly lavender at all. 
I looked even longer for the perfect dark variety. You see, 
1 want to arrange great bunches of Darwins in rose-red, pink, 
lavender, and deep blue-purple. The only flower that can 
even approach the color beauty of such a bouquet is the Sweet- 
pea, or possibly, the Gladiolus. There are plenty of dark 
Darwins, but they are more on the red than the blue tones. 
Faust is good, Andre Doria very fine, but these are too red 
for my wishes; and so is the little old (and now generally dis¬ 
carded) Sultan, which I consider no good at all. Zulu 1 once 
thought the blue-black of my dreams, but I do not find it 
healthy, and even the color sometimes disappoints. But I 
need look no more now if Viking proves always as fine as it was 
last spring, It could not be improved in any way—in color, 
shape, size, stem, or vigor. 
Off Shades that Attract 
FEW Darwins do not quite fit into any of these color 
groups. 1 loved Bleu 
Celeste and Raphael 
when 1 first saw them, and 
wrote in my note-book that 
they were, respectively, 
blue-purple and rose-purple. 
But they have never seemed 
so lovely since, neither in 
my own garden, nor else¬ 
where. Indeed, Bleu Celeste, 
of a raw magenta tone, has 
nothing but its name to 
recommend it to me now. 
Raphael, however, 1 must 
try again, for when 1 saw a 
big clump of it this year, it 
seemed again to have lovely 
pansy-like shades of rose 
and blue. Valentin is a 
small wide-open flower of 
reddish purple that goes 
badly with other colors, but 
it is so particularly free and 
sturdy that 1 can’t help 
liking to see it around. Ju¬ 
bilee has a great reputa¬ 
tion, but it was not very 
interesting in my garden. 
Giant, also highly praised 
by Tulip experts, is a won¬ 
derful flower, of very rich 
wine purple; but it seemed 
one of the least vigorous 
with me, and was very 
short-stemmed. However, 
that, too, 1 must try again. 
The Darwins don’t do 
very well with white as 
their garment. 1 am rather 
fond of Painted Lady, and 
it is interesting when 
studied closely, for it is tinged with lovely shades of purple and 
yellow; but it is not at all a true white. 
The Glowing Gold of the Cottage Group 
T HE livelier-hued Cottage Tulips are now to be considered. 
The golden lily-like Mrs. Moon (this name is a synonym of 
the more formal Fulgens lutea maxima) is one of my favorites. 
It is as vigorous as it is beautiful. Perhaps even lovelier is 
Avis Kennicott, softer in its shade of yellow and longer of petal. 
Primrose Beauty, seldom listed, is a darling, a most delicious 
pale yellow, slender, graceful, with the most enchanting fra¬ 
grance of any Tulip I know. Walter T. Ware is the most 
brilliant of all. a deep orange yellow; but it is small, has not a 
very good shape, and has not proved vigorous with me. I have 
tried many other yellows— Gesneriana lutea, Flava, Sol- 
ferina, Retroflexa Yellow, Leghorn Bonnet —but they 
all left something to be desired. Years ago 1 had Vitellina, 
and liked it very much, though 1 could not now compare it 
with these others with any exactness. I remember it was a 
pale yellow, turning almost white with age. 
Gesneriana major (more correctly called Gesneriana spat- 
hulata) is a fine bright red, and interesting as the ancestor of 
most of the Late Tulips. Fulgens is somewhat similar, but not 
nearly so good. As 1 so greatly prefer the rose-red of the Darwins 
1 do not bother with the Cottage scarlets, looking to this sec¬ 
tion only for the colors that cannot be found among the Dar¬ 
wins. (There is no yellow among the Darwins.) 
It is among the Cottage Tulips only that we find that won¬ 
derful color between yellow and red. Such is Emerald Gem, 
one of my favorites, delicious in color and fragrance, sturdy, and 
of great charm. La Mer- 
veille is similar in color, a 
larger and more striking 
flower, but I like it less, it 
seems a little thin and 
flimsy. 
I have a soft spot for 1n- 
GLESCOMBE PlNK, for it is 
one of the first Tulips l ever 
had, and I judge it may be 
among the last, for nothing 
surpasses it in vigor. Some¬ 
times it is a salmon pink, 
and then it is lovely; and 
sometimes it is a brownish 
pink, and then it is not. A 
soft pink Cottage Tulip of 
delicate charm, unlike any 
other, is The Fawn. As its 
name implies, it has fawn 
tints in its pink. A brighter 
Tulip, also in shades of pink 
and yellow, is John Ruskin ; 
but I was disappointed in 
it when 1 brought it home 
to live with me. 
Zomerschoon, white, 
flamed rose; Striped 
Beauty, of similar color 
scheme, but less good; King¬ 
fisher, white, with maroon 
flames; and Picotee, white, 
with a hair-line edge of rose, 
all leave me cold, for 1 do 
not like striped flowers. 
That is why I care little and 
say less about the “ broken ” 
Bybloemens and Rem¬ 
brandts. 
There has been some talk 
lately about a new break in 
“GOD HAS MADE A TULIP 
LIKE A RED CLOUD LIGHTED BY THE SUN” 
Afterglow, a Darwin of distinction, a “salmon pink of very rich coloring, inside 
orange with slight tints of light brown A fine outdoor grower” (see page 86) 
