One of my earliest garden memories is of the tulips my late mum planted when I was a child. As a tiny five year old, the tulips seemed enormous to me. I was fascinated by their big, blousy blooms in bright red and yellow. Although they left an impression on me, I’ve never been a huge fan of tulips since, as I’m always slightly disappointed that they collapse so quickly in a vase. My husband, on the other hand, worked in the tulip fields in the Netherlands and they are his favourite flower. Last autumn, though, I took a notion to try tulips again and so I purchased the ‘Renoir’ tulip collection from the wonderful Sarah Raven.
The Renoir Tulip Collection
I planted the tulips in a large trough that sits at our back door. I never expected much to happen, given the good old Northern Irish weather. But to my surprise and delight, tiny shoots began to emerge back in February. Since then the tulips have kept growing and with a recent spell of warm, sunny weather, they have finally started to bloom. I can honestly say I’ve never grown anything as beautiful or as romantic as these tulips. I simply cannot stop looking at them.
The collection is made up of 5 tulip bulbs:-
‘Pink Star’
‘ Apricot Parrot’
‘ Green Wave’
‘Mystic van Eijk’
And the famous Tulip ‘La Belle Epoque’
And while I am still waiting for ‘Green Wave’ to emerge, I thought I’d share a few pictures of the others.
Apricot Parrot
(possibly my favourite so far)
Pink Star and Apricot Parrot
La Belle Epoque
(just starting to flower yesterday – this might become my new favourite !)
The Renoir Collection in bloom
the tall pink ones and the first to flower are Mystic van Eijk
As mentioned, you can purchase the bulbs from Sarah Raven here. Although they are out of stock right now, I will be placing an order for many more come autumn. I cannot recommend them enough.
Do you have tulips in your garden? Are there any you would recommend?
Until next time, keep well and have a lovely Sunday x
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Your tulips are indeed lovely! I love all those soft, romantic colors.
Thank you very much!
They look lovely. Quite a few years ago I bought a cheap metal ‘bucket’ type pot with some tulip bulbs in it. They’ve never failed to bloom every year, even though they get no real care at all!
Yes, bulbs are really good value that way. Reliable flowers with minimum effort!
These are gorgeous!! I hope they deliver to the U.S.!
I recently read Sarah Raven’s A Year Full of Flowers and was very taken with her colour preferences – and, my goodness, with her work ethic.
‘La Belle Époque’ is an odd one, a somewhat peculiar colour, a faded rose, gone off before it reached its best but a beauty nonetheless.
I love getting her catalogues in the post as everything looks beautiful. I haven’t bought in a while as after Brexit they couldn’t deliver to here but I think that has been resolved now.
Your tulips look delightful. It must be so nice having them there at your door. 🙂
Yes, definitely…I get to admire them all the time !
Gorgeous. I love tulips, they’re a definite sign that winter is over and spring has sprung. 😊 X
Yes absolutely..such a welcome sight !