
TULIPS 
a is as distinctive and characteristic a season in the garden as Rose-time, Daffodil- 
time, or that short season when the burnished hues of the Chrysanthemums warn us that the 
show is nearly over for the year. Tulips are, indeed, the crown of the May garden. Lilacs of 
many hues may wave their perfumed plumes, the Sweet Viburnum scent the air, Dogwoods, Ap- 
ples, Crabapples, Flowering Almond and Spiraea may line their dark branches with lovely 
bloom, and a thousand flowers blow in the borders, but in some manner, like royalty, perhaps, 
the Tulip holds itself apart and is easily supreme. 
And the amazing thing is that the flower is so simple in form, a simple cup or vase; it makes 
no bid for admiration by means of intricacies or complexities; it artlessly offers its exquisitely 
molded chalice on a straight sturdy stem, and all around it appear fussy and confused. The 
carven cups of the Tulips easily dominate all else of their season. A garden full of Tulips is a 
garden endowed with indubitable distinction. 
But despite their simplicity their variety is astonishing. Hybridists make new flowers as Paris 
creates new fashions. The flower couturiers have been wise. They have left the lovely form 
alone and spent their genius upon varying its vesture. And what a marvelous piece of work they 
have done! A modern Tulip list puts to shame a painter’s palette. Cast your eye over it and 
you will find no tint or tone missing save the true blues. Every color, hue, dye, cast, com- 
plexion, shade, chromatism is there. Amidst such wealth we do not even think of blue. But 
there are lilacs from palest mauve to deep royal purple; there are pinks that simply beggar 
the language and the color charts; there are reds and scarlets, maroons that reach towards black, 
and a full and flawless scale of yellows from cream to hottest orange. And besides we have those 
strange unflowerlike hues that are so valuable for house decoration—the fawns, the citrons, tawny 
fuscous, biscuit, chocolate, beige, russet and hazel. And a vast number of chatse white varieties, 
occasionally with an intriguing selvage of scarlet or yellow, sometimes pure and unsullied, with 
even the anthers white. The soul of a Tulip is indeed its clothes. But many have, besides, a del- 
icate and purely characteristic fragrance, and these will be sought out by persons who love sweet- 
scented flowers. 
There are a thousand ways to make use of Tulips. They may be used in beds, marching in 
straight array, with a floor of some contrasting or harmonizing flower. For this purpose Pansies 
in their great variety may be used, or English Daisies, Wallflowers, Anchusa myosotidiflora, 
Bleedingheart, double-flowered Arabis, Golden Alyssum, particularly the variety citrinus, Vi- 
olas of all sorts and tints, Myosotis, Aubrietia, Armeria maritima, Primroses and Polyanthus, and 
many another small thing. 
Or they may be used scattered in generous groups about the borders with other flowers of their 
season, or brought within the same vision scope with some of the flowering shrubs and trees. 
Let us suggest that rather new shrub Kolkwitzia amabilis as a companion for some of the off- 
toned Breeders, the biscuits and fawns and dull browns, that are sometimes difficult to deal 
with in the garden. Then if you have a low-boughed Apple tree make a plantation of Tulips 
near it, preferably in the pink tones; or the mauve and purple kinds are lovely and subtle be- 
neath a Judas Tree (Cercis canadensis). Lilacs offer a whole scale from palest pink and white 
to darkest and richest purple which will harmonize with innumerable Tulip tones—yellows, 
whites, pinks, all the mauves and purples, even the scarlets. And besides there are the pink 
and white Dogwoods, reaching down their boughs to take part in the lovely Tulip assem- 
blages. Any one with an eye that is an eye at all cannot go far wrong in this season of luxur- 
iant beauty, but one with a lively sense for color will revel in the innumerable opportunities 
to paint pictures against the expectant earth. 
There is hardly a spot in the garden that will not be improved by the use of these flowers 
that combine glad and glorious colors with a simplicity of form and a dignity of carriage that 
are not rivalled by any other bloom. And they come at a season when we are ready and thirsty 
for such prodigal loveliness. 
Let us be thankful for them. 
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