Tulip Review 2017

The last of the tulips were sold this week, the beds turned over and planted into sunflowers and snapdragons, and just yesterday I placed my order for next year's tulip crop. Tulip season is definitely a fast and furious one, and just when you think you've had enough then it's time to dive in and plan for next year! Even though it is a good 10 months before next year's tulips will begin to pop out of the ground, I am super excited for the varieties I've chosen for 2018. LOTS of color and a great variety of forms and shapes! 

This year we grew several different forms of tulips: singles, doubles (two layers of petals), and parrots. The singles included 'Sanne', 'Apricot Pride', and 'Big Chief'. 'Sanne' may have been my favorite of the season, since it was the very first to bloom and had an incredible fragrance. 'Apricot Pride' was a lovely coral, peach, and pink. 'Big Chief' lived up to it's name, that's for sure....most stems were easily 3 feet long, with huge blushing red blooms.

'Angelique' was a very sweet and delicate double tulip. With shorter and slimmer stems than most of the other tulips we grew, it certainly made up for it with it's beautiful layers of light pink petals. Some people in warmer climates have a hard time growing doubles if their winters are not cold enough and the bulbs don't get enough chill time. When that happens, the tulips flower on very short stems (1-2") which makes for an unsaleable crop. Up here in zone 4, we don't have to worry about lack of cold winters, that's for sure! 

The parrot tulips were definitely the most photogenic! Parrots have such a cool shape, with huge floppy blooms in vibrant colors. This year we grew 'Monarch' and 'Avignon', both of which had similar color schemes of orange, coral, and deep green. The 'Monarchs' were a little shorter with slim stems, while 'Avignon' was HUGE, up to 3 feet tall with big fluffy blooms.