A riot of colour and some very beautiful tulips on show – tall, short, frilly, fluted, splayed, lily-flowered, painted and shaded and striped, bold and bright, dark and brooding, sheer, soft and silky, double-doubled and in pretty much every colour (bar a true blue).
The most intriguing is this last one (above), the English Mustardy-yellow, with curled, quilled petals like up-turned chair legs. It was numbered ‘8’ (out of 341 planted blocks) but I didn’t see a name plate.
Duc Van Tol is the oldest cultivar on show, dating back to 1595.
From the RHS website –
14,000 tulips to light up the garden this April and May
Over 350 varieties of tulips, which were planted in November 2013 to create the new Wisley Tulip Garden, will be bursting into bloom in early April and delighting visitors until the end of May. The new garden is part of RHS Garden Wisley’s ‘People’s Choice Award’ and will be a riot of colour as the 14,000 bulbs come into bloom.
Colin Crosibe, Curator, comments: “It’s a real treat to see historic and modern tulips side by side in this fashion. Tulips are a huge favourite with visitors to Wisley and we have created this garden so that everyone can see for themselves, the diversity of different tulips that can be grown in gardens in the UK – it will be a sight to inspire all who see it to start growing these gorgeous flowers at home.”
As well as modern varieties that are easy to buy, the new Garden also includes historic bulbs such as Tulipa ‘Duc van Tol Red and Yellow’, T. ‘Van der Neer’ and T. ‘Silver Standard’, some of which date back to the 16th Century. All of these were donated to the RHS by the Hortus Bulborum Foundation at Limmen, in the Netherlands. Visitors to the Wisley can vote for their favourite tulip. Normal garden entry applies. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk/wisley
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/Wisley-pdfs/Tulips-at-Wisley—take-your-pick
See also
http://www.thetulipgallery.com/all
http://oldtulips.org/index.php
The Teddington Gardener 