Tulips at Longwood

For the next six weeks, tulips and daffodils will be the star attractions at

Longwood Gardens.  More than 240,000 bulbs were planted by volunteers last fall.

There are lots of other flowers as well.  I was at the Gardens last week.

Above are some of the daffodils; below are some of the tulips.

These orange streaked tulips are in the Ideas Garden, which consist of almost 100 square

beds of different varieties of tulips and daffodils, so visitors can get an idea of the

varieties they might like to plant at home.  The color is riotous.

The Ideas Garden with tulips and daffodils and in the background a glimpse of

Magnolia Grove, with dozens of different varieties of magnolia trees.

The Easter Egg Bed with lots of pastel colors.

Some of the most elegant tulips are these lavender and white, an early variety

with short stems.

Yellow Tulips are about as cheerful a flower as you can find, and there are yellows

ranging from lemon yellow to canary yellow to egg-yolk yellow to yellow-orange.

This type of tulip is called a "Taper Tulip" because they look like flickering flames.

Daffodils mingle with the tulips, and every possible combination of colors between petals

and trumpet can be found - white, yellow, orange, red, small, large, etc.

From one corner of the Idea Garden to the other.

Chalice Tulips open up like a cup, their petals opening out, not upward.

Parrot Tulips are large and have very frilly petals; they look very exotic.

As a photographer, I shoot some flowers with the sun ON them, and others with the sun

shining THROUGH them.  The reults are very different.  As you can see, these pink

tulips have the sun shining THROUGH them and the petals become transparent.

Yellow Daffodils with Large Orange Trumpet

Horticulturalists have been able to breed Double Tulips, which have two or three rings

of petals, rather than just one.  They are large and look almost like peonies.

These Pink Double Tulips are some of the most beautiful doubles, I think.

"Cotton Candy Tulips."  These are both double (two rings of petals) and also two-toned,

pale cream and peach.

A large raised bed of primarily pink and red tulips.  These are late tulips with very tall

strong stems.  They start blooming 2-3 weeks after the Early Tulips.

The other major display area for tulips at Longwood is the Garden Walk, a broad sidewalk

as long as a football field lined on either side with large beds of primarily tulips.  In

the background here are two Flowering Dogwood trees.  The tulip beds begin with deep

purple and then gradually change to lavender and pink, then beds of red and orange, then

pale orange and yellow, and finally all white beds.

Frilled Purple Tulips

A bed of pink and white tulips leading up to the Fountain Plaza.

White Daffodils with White Trumpets

Deep Purple Tulips

Hot Red Tulips

Idea Garden Beds

 Pink Tulips by the Fountain

Orange and Yellow Early Tulips

Tulips in a Variety of Colors

Double Yellow Tulips, which are so big and heavy that their stems cannot hold them up.

Snapdragons and Daffodils in the All White Section

Open-Cup Orange Tulips

The Red and Orange Section of the Garden Walk

The Yellow section of the Garden Walk; there are also yellow Wallflowers and
Pansies on the right side.

Cream Colored Daffodils with large yellow trumpets.

Red and Orange Section of the Garden Walk

A quite corner to sit in the Idea Garden by the Forsythia Hedge

Bed of Purple Tulips and Flowering White Dogwood Trees

Large Double Pink Tulips with light pink edges.

Variegated Orange Tulips; notice, their petals are different from Tapers.

Pink and Green Parrot Tulips

Yellow Parrot Tulips with flashes of red



__