TULIPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10785, 24 October 1895, Page 2

TULIPS.

(The FUU.) Thera are signs that tha next family token up by hardy; flower gardeners with enthusiasm will be this; and we glad ’to see it is so, as we believe few plants are more worthy of renewed attention. The splendid colour of the tulip cornea in as a delightful contrast to the beautiful yellows and whites of the narcissus. Talk about poppies—the finest and most brilliant plants of the whole year are the tulips, like the parrots, and the finer forme of T. gesneriana. The merit of the tulip in this respect need not be told, one would think, to most people. But here, again, tha work of the so - called florist comes in to mar the enjoyment of these plants, as with the carnation, of which the florists used to grow with great care in pots a fow plants for the sake of their markings, and so also the florists’ tulip was the object of a cult with a fixed set of rules, the whole attention being given to one species. Tho whole object was to make it break into a series of prettily-flaked or coloured varieties, no regard being paid to the nobler seifs, which were excluded as refuse. Now, however, people are beginning to find out that these seifs are by far the beat of the bunch; also we have got of recent years a number of wild kinds of tulip, such as Greigi, which surprise ue by their fine colour and beauty, and call attention to the possibilities of new varieties of tulip distinct from the old garden kinds. On this new path some are working, and we formed a pretty complete collection ourselves, with, we must say, the bast result in six months from the tim£ of planting. One charm of tulip culture is that we can enjoy it either in the flower garden itself, or in a nursery, in tho kitchen or any other garden where they are handy to deal with, and, though they seem equally useful either way, the slight disadvantage of planting them in the garden is that one may want to devote the beds to other things which do not like to be moved every year—such things as roses for example. Tha species and more telling varieties of tulips should, like the narcissus, bo bought in large quantities, so that their effects might telJ, and tha trade might very much help this by inducing their customers to give larger orders, aud by pricing them in a more wholesale way.