Although effective in themselves, the beauty of Tulips is greatly enhanced by planting them in beds that are already carefully arranged with such plants as Wallflowers, Polyanthuses, Primroses, Pansies, or Violas, Dwarf Saxifrages, Double White Arabis, (A. albida flore pleno), Yellow Alyssum (A. saxatile), Forget-me-Nots, Aubrietias, and such like plants that blossom about the same period and make an effective screen to hide the ground between the blue-green leaves of the Tulips. In arranging combinations, it is as well to have the Tulips and carpet plants arranged so that the colour of the one shall be quite distinct and in lively contrast with that of the others.
Thus White Tulips may have Yellow Arabis, Primroses, Polyanthuses, &c., beneath them. On the other hand, red Tulips should not be mixed with red Wallflowers, although they look remarkably effective with yellow ones. And so on, more or less in accordance with the principles laid down at [p. 38].
For the benefit of those who take up their Tulip bulbs each year (when the flowers have withered being usually the earliest period for this operation) it may be as well to mention, that the bulb that is lifted about midsummer, is not the same as that planted in autumn. Indeed it is quite a new bulb altogether, and, as a rule, contains all the elements necessary for the production of leaves and blossoms the following season. The Tulip bulb planted in autumn is used up in the formation of leaves and flowers, that are produced in early summer. Whence then comes the bulb that is taken out of the soil when the flowering period is over? It has been made out of the raw material that has been assimilated by the leaves under the influence of sunlight. Very often there is more than sufficient food for the formation of a large flowering bulb, in which case the surplus food is converted into offsets at the base of the large bulb. These offsets, if planted and grown on for two or three seasons in specially prepared beds of light soil, will develop into flowering bulbs. They should, therefore, never be thrown away as useless.
[Seedling Tulips.]—Besides offsets (some of which drop several inches below the parent bulb, and are called "droppers.") Tulips may also be raised from seeds if one has the requisite patience and convenience. When seeds are required, the old plants must of course be left in the soil until the seed capsules have thoroughly ripened. The seeds should be sown very sparsely in drills, in carefully-prepared beds of light soil, and may be left undisturbed for about five or seven years, until the first flowers appear. Of course weeds must be kept down regularly, and to facilitate this operation, the seed beds should not be more than 4 or 5 feet wide, and the drills quite a foot apart.
The first flowers of a seedling Tulip are called "Breeders" or "Mother Tulips" and are of one colour throughout, although the seeds may have been saved from beautifully pencilled or flaked blossoms. When a "breeder" Tulip develops markings of a different colour, it is said to "break" or "rectify." Such rectified flowers are then divided into two groups, (a) those with a pure white centre, base, or ground, and (b) those with a pure yellow centre.
The white centred flowers (a) are again divided into (i) Roses, the flowers of which are various shades of pink, rose, scarlet, crimson, cerise, &c., and (ii) Bybloemens, the flowers of which display various shades of lilac, lavender, violet, purple, brown, purple-black, &c.
The yellow-centred flowers (b) are called Bizarres, with various shades of orange, scarlet, crimson, purple-black, brown, &c. These various classes of "rectified" Tulips have the petals either "feathered" or "flamed." A "feathered" Tulip has the petals beautifully pencilled and feathered round the edges only; while a "flamed" Tulip differs in having bright streaks, bands, or flames of a distinct colour shooting up the centre of each petal from the base, and forking out towards the pencilled and feathered margins.
Only specialists in what are called the "florist's Tulip," however, take a keen delight in drawing these distinctions.
There are some hundreds of varieties of Tulips enumerated in nurserymen's catalogues, but it is unnecessary to grow many of them to make an effective display. The following—arranged according to the predominating colour—may be regarded as a good selection for planting in the open ground in autumn:—
Single Varieties for Planting Out.—Red, Scarlet, Crimson, and Pink.—Artus, Bacchus, Belle Alliance, Couleur de Cardinal, Crimson King, Duc Van Thol, Pottebakker, Proserpine, Rose Luisante, Rose Gris de Lin. Orange, Brownish, and Terra Cotta.—Cardinal's Hat, Duc Van Thol, Leonardo da Vinci, Prince of Austria, and Thomas Moore. Yellow.—Bouton d'Or ([Plate 9], fig. 37), Canary Bird, Chrysolora, Gold Finch, Golden Crown, Mon Trésor, Pottebakker, and Yellow Prince. White or Blush.—Albion (or White Hawk), Jacht van Delft, White Swan, Grand Duchess, Joost von Vondel, La Reine, Immaculée, and Pottebakker. Purple and Violet.—Molière, Purple Crown, President Lincoln. Red, Pink, Rose, or Violet, with White.—Bride of Haarlem, Cottage Maid, Couleur ponceau, Standard Royal, Wapen van Leiden, Picotee ([Plate 9], fig. 36). Red and Yellow combined.—Brutus, Duchesse de Parma, Keizerskroon.