clusiana

I think that clusiana is my favorite tulip. I love the soft colors, the delicacy, the graceful arch of the stem, the crimped leaves. With today's cloudy weather, the flowers stayed closed, but this is when I love them the most. Although last year I lamented the yellow form (below), I'm appreciating the warmth of the yellow petal edge. I still don't really like the yellow of the open flower, though.

In the previous years that I've had this tulip, the leaves were close to the ground and crimped in a pie-crust fashion. This year, they are more upright, taller, and almost smooth. The flowers also began to open while the colors were still quite pale (below, 2 days ago) but now they have colored up.

It has always been a major bummer to me that tulips don't last longer. For me the flowers last a week, tops. This is why people plant at least several varieties, so some bloom early, midseason or late.

I'm happy to notice that as clusiana has clumped, the bulbs have staggered bloom times. Although there are some flowers open, some are just developing. Maybe I'll get as many as two weeks out of them this year.

My other tulips don't seem to do this. When they form clumps, the flowers all open within a day of each other. This makes for a more dramatic show, even if it is not longer.