Not having a bed prepared for them, I stuck them in this container with, of course, my Johnnies for the winter. Now they make quite a stunning vignette at the bottom of the steps leading to the back door and the deck. The detail in the Tulips is amazing. You can click on the pictures for a larger view.
I wanted Tulip kaufmanniana because they will naturalize if they are happy with their living conditions. (T. kaufmanniana also comes in other colors.) Now I just have to convince these Tulips that they actually live in a place with cold winters and dry summers. I think I will do o.k. on the cold winters, but it will take a little more work to make the humid, rainy summers palatable for these guys. What I do for plants, huh?
Have a beautiful day!
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3 comments:
What does it mean for a plant to naturalize?
-M
Hi, M - For a bulb to naturalize means that the bulb continues to live and multiply from year to year, like it would do living in its native terrain. To get it to that in your garden, you would try to duplicate what the conditions are like where the bulb came from. For example, it wouldn't have been cold enough in So. Cal., where I lived, for T. kaufmanniana to come back year to year and bloom. Here the winters are cold enough and summers are hot enough, but probably too wet, so I will plant them in very gravelly soil (NOT clay), so the soil won't stay wet in hopes of making them think it is a dry summer.
That is very cool. Thank you!
-M
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