Yi's Garden

Notes from one backyard, one bloom at a time.

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Tulip Roll Call

Back in November I planted bulbs in the cold drizzle, muttering that future-me had better appreciate it. Future-me appreciates it. Here's the honest report card on everything that came up.

Dense mixed tulip planting: yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple-and-white striped tulips
The mixed bed at peak. Not one color scheme, and I've decided that's the charm.

The mixed bag (A−): I gave up on tasteful color-blocking this year and planted a mix, and the result looks like confetti — yellows, oranges, hot pinks, and a purple-and-white striped one (Rembrandt style) that I'd pick as valedictorian. The doubles came up looking like tiny peonies and fooled two separate neighbors.

Garden bed with red, pink, orange, white and yellow tulips rising out of a river of blue grape hyacinth, pink creeping phlox behind
The river bed: tulips standing in a stream of grape hyacinth.

The muscari river (A+): The best decision of last fall was underplanting the whole strip with grape hyacinth. The tulips rise out of a blue stream, the muscari hides all the awkward tulip ankles, and it blooms for weeks longer than the tulips do. This combination is now permanent policy.

Row of red and coral tulips with one orange double tulip, grape hyacinth and pink phlox around them
The sidewalk row. The orange double in front opened flat like a rose and stayed that way for a week.

The sidewalk row (B+): Solid reds and corals, dependable as a metronome. Docked half a grade because the squirrels relocated at least a dozen bulbs — there's a lone red tulip blooming in the middle of the phlox carpet twenty feet away, which I did not plant there, but fine. It works.

Planting notes for this fall: more muscari (double the order), more doubles, and chicken-wire cages over anything the squirrels can reach in October.