True Colors

Day 89
The Daily DuBrule

Last fall I decided to get serious about understanding the true colors and bloom sequence of many spring blooming bulbs. I was especially interested in hyacinths as my crew planted some amazing hyacinths in a client's garden in Guilford and it frustrated me that I didn't know exactly what variety I was admiring. That's the way I am, a total geek when it comes to this kind of thing.


Enter my zinc metal markers and my oil based marker pens that, after about 20 years of trying, I finally found. They last through the seasons! Amazing! So above meet Hyacinthus 'Woodstock', the incredible purple hyacinth that caught my eye last April. 

'Jan Bos' on the other hand, is not RED as the label and picture shows, it's really a brilliant dayglow pink. Okay, so I learned something here.

My other colorful experiment is to plant double rows of purple tulips in between my various garlic bulbs. Now that spring is here, the garlic and the tulips are thriving. 'Purple Prince' opened a few weeks ago. This weekend, three more varieties showed their true colors. There are still quite a few left to unfold, including some on the east side of the fence around my courtyard which, thank goodness, is a bit cooler and is slowing down the show a bit.

Here today, gone tomorrow. That's the story with May tulips blooming in April in a year like this one. Thank goodness I have my digital camera to capture the magic.