Tulip Rococo
An early, short-ish tulip, in volcanic shades of scarlet, crimson, cerise and orange. Frilled, puckered and alternately silky-sheeny-shiny and matt, with yellow, green and black, for good measure. The carnival outfit for the outspoken plant in Little Shop of Horrors. An excellent variety for a container – these are in a quite shallow bowl (most tulips demand a deep pot – a Yorkshire Long Tom is ideal for many of the longer, later flowering varieties).
I potted up a lot – hundreds and hundreds – of bulbs during October, November and even December last year, all in containers of one sort or another. I had the experience the year before, of trying to plant an equal number of bulbs straight into the ground and my back still aches with the memory. Planting them deeply and in a kind of bulb lasagna, larger, later flowering varieties at the bottom and working your way upwards, with a smattering of compost between layers, to the shorter, earlier varieties at the topmost layer. I had hoped this would give a very full effect, with a long period of interest and so far, this is proving to be true.
The colour themes can develop and change – one pot I saw today had an early orange parrot tulip giving way to the more refined lily-flowered Ballerina with Ronaldo, a deep plum, coming through next – and probably something else after that. What I ought to have done is made a record somewhere! But where’s the fun in that?!
This is just plain old Rococo –
The Teddington Gardener 