When I first got interested in gardening, about 18 years ago, I was lucky enough to come across the Christopher Lloyd book, Colour for Adventurous Gardeners. It brought together colours that you might not consider go together, and showed you that they could. It inspired me to ignore convention and experiment. When I was designing my current front garden, the theme of which is a ‘hot’ garden (hot colours), I thought I’d do some more playing around with colours.
One of my favourite tulips is the flaming orange, Tulipa ‘Ballerina’, which really flowers its socks off for around three weeks. I wanted to choose something to grow with it, and decided upon the beetroot red of Tulipa ‘Havran’. This is the result.
With direct sun, and the petals fully out:
Orange Tulipa ‘Ballerina’ and beetroot red Tulipa ‘Havran’
Under clouds, they revert to their fluted glasses look:
I think they look splendid in sunlight, and elegantly beautiful in muted light.
Tulipa ‘Havran’
Tulipa ‘Ballerina’
The tulips are going over now and are looking a little punch drunk. However, the colours, though fading, continue to make me smile.
I’m so happy with the colour combination, that I’m going to buy more
of the same species to plant in this part of the front garden, to really
fill it up for next year.
They clash beautifully.