
BACKGROUNDS AND ENVIRONMENTS 
Many a Tulip flowers to blush unseen because it lacks 
a background or a suitable environment. Shrubbery or 
walls may form the background or it may be merely 
adjacent foliage. From the vast range of spring flowering 
shrubs, one cannot make a mistake in selecting these for 
backgrounds. Visualize a shoal of pink Adorable, Rosa- 
bella or Princess Mary, under the lee of a massed plant- 
ing of the beautiful lilac, Miss Willmott; or Mrs. John 
T. Scheepers or Mother’s Day, lying like a patch of the 
starry heavens under the purple pendants of a Wistaria, 
or the cherry-rose of King George V, near the pure white 
flowers of Spirea. The spread of Peony-leafage or the 
feathery spikes of Polemonium or the broad leaves of 
Anchusa, these may create a contrasting environment for 
Darwin and Breeder Tulips. Or it may be that the 
flowers of herbaceous plants that bloom simultaneously 
with the Tulip, will help create the necessary harmonious 
or contrasting environment—the great variations of Tall 
Bearded Irises, the low blue of Spring Veronica and the 
scorching orange of Siberian Wallflower. Visualize the 
bronze-violet of Louis XIV, the apricot-pink of Marjorie 
Bowen and the white of Glacier with the blue flowers of 
Phlox divaricata. Or this same Tulip combination with 
Mertensia virginica. 
But not alone is the background and environment made 
on an upper plane; much depends on what lies below the 
Tulips—the ground cover and the low plants blooming 
immediately thereabouts. From the simplest contrasts to 
the subtlest combinations the selection can be made. 
With blue Aubretia, for example, the contrasting orange 
of Orange Delight and the lemon of Mother’s Day; with 
white Arabis or Iberis, scarlet and crimson Tulips—the 
cherry-rose of King George V; with Violets or Myosotis, 
the yellow of Wall Street, or the chestnutty Huchten- 
burg, or Conde Nast, or Mrs. F. E. Dixon or the 
orange-yellow of Jeanne Désor or even the pointed 
spires of Lily Tulip, Alaska. 
COLOR HARMONIES 
Like the animals that walked into the ark two by two 
“after their kind,” so must Tulips be combined “after 
their kind” if we are to succeed with them as picture 
material. Varieties of delicate coloring and _ structure 
should be kept apart from those of brilliant, insistent 
coloring and robust structure. 
Dark colored varieties are used for the main bold 
rear or front color effect. Interplant these with contrast- 
ing colors or different tones of the main planting. It is 
well nigh axiomatic that background colors should be 
strikingly darker or lighter than the foreground colors. 
Thus La Tulipe Noire and The Bishop, or Louis XIV and 
Bacchus can be used for a mass of dark tones; Annie 
Laurie—an old-rose—Zwanenburg or Alaska, or light 
bronze varities will afford contrasts. Another contrasting 
ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 1950, BY JOHN SCHEEPERS, INC. 
Juli Color Box 
combination would be the maroon of Bourgogne and the 
yellow of Belle Jaune. Or the black maroon La Tulipe 
Noire with soft pinks such as Adorable and Mr. Van Zyl. 
Or the apricot-colored Reve D’Or and Dido with purples 
and crimsons. 
When Tulips are used in the perennial border, there 
should be no sharp dividing line between the colors. 
They should be planted in irregular shoals or drifts that 
run one into the other, so that as an observer walks along 
the border the color aspect is constantly changing. On 
the other hand, continuity should be maintained by plant- 
ing a few bulbs of the same tones all through the border 
so that they connect the various drifts. 
Zwanenburg and the silvery pink of Princess Elizabeth 
close by a shoal of pink Northern Queen and the rose- 
pink Rosabella, then some of the Marjorie Bowen and 
the Northern Queen can be extended beyond the shoals 
to connect them. This echoing from shoal to shoal and 
bed to bed is merely the application of the principle of 
repetition that is found in all good art. 
COLORS OF FAR AND NEAR 
Blue is the color of distance and its affinities lend a 
far air of expanse to a garden. The blue of the sky and 
the white of clouds give the same effect of distance to 
the eye. If the garden is small, it can be lent a distance 
by planting these in blended masses—the lilacs of 
Madame Butterfly and Blue Gem; the purples of Scotch 
Lassie and The Bishop, and the Salmon-Orange of 
Limnos. If the garden is to be given a close and intimate 
air, then use the colors that advance—the reds, oranges 
and yellows such as Eclipse, Huchtenberg, Limnos, So- 
nate, Inga Hume and Conde Nast. 
BALANCE AND FOCAL COLORS 
The strong tones—the reds, oranges and yellows—are 
more penetrating than the blues, purples and mauves, and 
consequently should be used as focal colors to attract the 
eye where color accent is desired. From these color 
heights the tones can be scaled down on each side in 
adjacent shoals. 
Remember also to give at least the semblance of bal- 
ance in your color plantings lest the border appear rest- 
less. Thus the dark, rich red of Eclipse and the cardinal 
red of City of Haarlem might be combined for a focal 
mass, with descending balanced shoals on each side of 
Barbara Pratt, a rosy red, blended down to meet a 
shoal of the rose, orange and salmon of Dido or Orange 
Ophelia. 
But for all these subtleties, there are some Tulips that 
in our opinion can stand alone without any supporting 
tints save from the immediate greenery of other plants. 
The superb purple of Bacchus, the ardor of Reve D’Or., 
the maidenly blushing of Rosabella, the regal hauteur of 
Tantalus—such Tulips may pass unaccompanied. 
