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Saturday, April 18, 2015

The Element of Surprise

I am a sucker for surprises. I prefer them to be good and involve lots of chocolate, but even your garden variety can be fun. After moaning about killing my tulips, I had a few bloom just to prove me wrong.

Of course, they're bright orange. I don't recall buying orange tulips, but there you have it.


They're very pretty in an orange traffic cone kind of way.



71 comments:

  1. They are gorgeous!! And I LOVE orange!!! Wishing you a rocking weekend my friend!!!! Happy blooming! Nicole xoxo

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  2. Ha! Well orange is back in now and glad you have a bloom or two. The Bambi's came and ate my tulip blooms , I am suitably unimpressed. Grrrr!! Hope you can get outside tomorrow and get in your garden! Chris

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    1. I have several plants with orange flowers in the garden and have already added more. These just caught me by... surprise because I'd forgotten what color they were. :o) I spent the weekend in the garden and it was wonderful!

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  3. That looks a lot like Princess Irene, my absolute favorite tulip. I love it.

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    1. I love it, too, even though it reminds me of a traffic cone. :o)

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  4. No bad surprise at all, especially the different stripes of orange are wonderful on these ´Irene` tulips.

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  5. They are very nice. Actually, it is hard to think of an ugly tulip. Some we might not like as much as other but they are all pretty good. Here the earliest ones have started to open. Like most year, we went from winter to summer. Ten days ago there was a foot of snow, now we have hellebore, crocus, daffodils and tulips!

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    1. I don't think there is such a thing as an ugly tulip. Your garden was sick of winter and ready to dance!

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  6. I agree with Alison, Princess Irene, a lovely tulip! Love the cartoon!

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    1. It'a hard to resist a good chemistry cartoon. :o) Princess Irene is a keeper!

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  7. Good on the tulips for toughing it out. Will you be rewarding them by a move to a kinder home?

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    1. I treat my tulips as annuals so these will be composted and then replaced with new ones this fall planted in a totally different spot!

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  8. Your tulips are splendid! They probably heard you mention that you had killed them all and lived just to prove you wrong. An excellent act of rebellion.

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    1. I do admire a rebellious plant. Flora after my own heart. ;o)

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  9. That's a gorgeous tulip! I recall hearing a blogger comment once that trash talking plants often leads them to make a sudden turnaround, as if they're saying "gotcha." I may start trash talking all my flowering plants...BTW, the naked ladies seem to be settling in and producing foliage.

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    1. Then I need to start talking some serious smack to a few garden weenies. I'm sooo happy your naked ladies have settled in. I'm sure they're immensely relived to be out of my clay!

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  10. The tulip is really lovely....I like to think of spring as an excuse to cram in all manner of gaudy colours, so a tulip with all the subtlety of a traffic cone, is my kind of flower :-) Matt

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    1. Me, too! I have a few purple ones that have managed to bloom. I like tulips displays that are a bit insane.

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  11. This is a beautiful tulip. I have not seen this one before What a blend of colours.

    Helen

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  12. I think it's gorgeous! Sometimes plants can be mislabeled, though, which might have led to the orange tulip incident. I once planted bulbs labeled as yellow gladiolus right in front of my red house, only to discover they were really bright neon pink. A little bit of a color clash!

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    1. I agree! I love the unexpectedness of it the most. :o)

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  13. It is good that you enjoy surprises! I am not a big orange fan...except in flowers, i do prefer the more subtle oranges of my aloe! All in all I think they were the ones that didn't want to disappoint!

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    1. I really like orange. I was convinced those were a blend of pinks/purples but the orange is more fun. :o)

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  14. Oh, I like those! But I like orange. And I like orange flowers. And Tulips. Congratulations. Enjoy your surprise!

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  15. Princess Irene! Or to be really pedantic ' Prinses Irene'. It is named after a Dutch Princess. I think she is a stunner. I love the purple flame against the orange.I don' t think tulips should be subtle.

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    1. She is a stunner! She's welcome in my garden any time. :o)

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  16. Oh, sister, I'm with you! I've NEVER planted a yellow or an orange tulip yet the odd one keeps popping up. I've planted loads of deep purple - what happens to them? I've been blaming squirrels for years but perhaps it's been the beer guzzling weasels?! My conclusion is that tulips are tricky, I have most success with white.

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    1. Maybe the purple ones taste the best. :o) But the weasels are always to blame for everything!

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  17. I don't have any at all because I had to cry 'uncle' to the squirrels so this orange beauty is a welcome sight. :-)

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    1. The squirrels did go tulip hunting after I planted them but I stuffed long sticks into the pot and they left them alone. :o)

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  18. I LOVE surprises, and these orange blooming tulips should be treasured since they've beat the odds. You can rename them, "I WILL SURVIVE!!" Play a little Gloria Gaynor for them and have a happy dance.

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    1. Absolutely!! Maybe I'll rename these Princess Irene's Gloria because they are some of the only survivors. They're already working a disco flame! ;o)

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  19. I put orange ones in last fall-I have to admit they are a bit different than my usual purple- but a pleasant surprise:-) The squirrels eat all my tulips, so if I get a few years of color it makes me smile! I put pink and orange in this past fall:-) I am an odd one-LOL

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    1. When I bought these I was at the garden center and was on the phone with a friend in a big but quiet discussion about work drama. I was the only one in the entire bulb aisle. I remember just stuffing bulbs into bags. I was so upset about what we were talking about I wasn't paying much attention to the bulbs. If the picture on the box was pretty, I shoved the bulbs in a bag. But for some reason I thought I had only bought purples. But I love orange so I'm not surprised I grabbed a few of these. too, But I love pink and orange together, too. I'm a big fan of clown pants gardening.

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  20. I absolutely love orange tulips (and most orange flowers, for that matter). How fun to discover plants you didn't think you had anymore! -Beth

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    1. These have been a very fun discovery. Fun surprises are the best. :o)

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  21. I think they are beautiful! Of course, I am partial to orange...

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  22. Beautiful color on the tulips. Great surprise I'd say (and I love the cartoon).

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    1. The cartoon cracked me up.Since a few new elements were just added, why not add Surprise, too? ;o)

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  23. Oh I loved the cartoon....and the tulips reminded me of a creamsicle of sorts...hoping for a few surprise tulips here too.

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  24. I like the orange too, but given the post below, I guess you have to be grateful for any coloured tulip that flowers for you!

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  25. I am all for surprises even orange traffic cone colored ones!

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  26. Orange tulips are my favorite. Congrats!

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  27. A garden lives and/or dies just to prove us wrong :)

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    1. Absolutely!! Mine has a twisted sense of humor. :o)

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  28. I love orange flowers!You should be happy! Aren't you happy? I think I know the name of this tulip - 'Princess Irene'.

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    1. I'm very happy, just surprised! I have lots of orange milkweed and this year am adding some orange cosmos and dwarf tithonia and maybe some orange poet's tassle flowers. I don't remember buying orange tulips but some days I swear I'm losing my mind so the fact that I can't remember buying them doesn't mean much. :o)

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  29. Me too, Tammy. The only tulips with any semblance of longevity and permanence are the orange ones that I KNOW I didn't buy! I guess we can call it Murphy's Law in the Garden. Yours looks like a happy surprise! Hope you're enjoying your spring.

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    1. They have definitely been a happy surprise! Murphy's Law is the law of the land in my garden. :o)

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  30. Hello Tammy girl !
    This happens every Spring to me as well ... I call them my "Phyllis Diller" bulbs .. have no idea how they got there (my theory is aliens actually .. messing with what is left of my mind and laughing their little green butts off in space)
    But then again ... some are quite nice and leave me with a smile onmy face ... ok .. clown smile on my face !
    Just enjoy girl ... some where some"thing" is having a laugh !
    Joy : )

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    1. I'm enjoying them immensely. One of the best surprises of the year. :o)

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  31. Good garden surprises are always fun. I'm glad at least some of your tulips bloomed. :)

    I like orange, even traffic cone orange (like butterfly weed!), but it can be tough to incorporate into the garden.

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    1. I like orange, too. What's funny is just that I don't remember buying these so I was unprepared for them to be so orange. But they're gorgeous so I'm buying them again next year. :o)

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  32. I cracked up at Grace's comment. It is the same for me--the orange ones seem to be the toughest little buggers! Could there be something in their gene pool? Who knows, but I think your orange slush babies are mighty pretty. Look on the bright side, they will always be there to remind you that you don't in fact kill EVERY tulip that happens into your yard-:))

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    1. What's funny is that the few tulips I plopped straight into the ground all thrived. The ones that rotted were the ones in the pots in all that expensive soil, except for a select few including these beauties. Oh well.... Live and learn!

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  33. I am glad to see that fantastic tulip, it really is a beauty! I'm SO glad you didn't buy it.....my tulips have put on a fairly rotten show this year....sighs....off to hunt down some orange ones!xxx

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  34. So happy you have some tulips after all! This looks like 'Princess Irene,' which I planted in honor of my mother. Spring is always full of surprises for me, because I always forget what I planted the previous fall:) I tried to leave a comment on your last post last week, but I only had my IPad with me, and it kept erasing my comment. Anyway, I share your homicidal tendencies in the garden, so don't feel too bad. Last year my first attempt at planting tulips in containers failed. I didn't know why until I discovered the pot had no drainage hole--no wonder they all drowned! This year I forgot to wrap the containers in bubble wrap and left them out in the frigid cold, so I guess they froze to death. I would give up on potted bulbs, but I'll probably forget all those mistakes this fall and find some other way to kill them:)

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  35. Hi Tammy, that's beautifully coloured tulip! I'm getting surprises at this time of year to - sadly not nice ones, so come on, stop pouting about failed tulips, chin up and all that!

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