1,000 Tulips: An Update

Many tulips, & almost as many photos of tulips

[ VERY LONG POST - too long for email - click on through for the full experience ]

I was home in London for about 36 hours, just long enough to attend my friend Katy’s ‘Tits, Tarts, Tiaras & Tea’ party (inspired - we wore corsets and tiaras, ate cake (I contributed a tarte tropezienne from Birley Bakery, and then ate half of it myself - SO good) and drank Earl Grey on Sunday afternoon. ‘twas excellent) and to fill my car up with more plants to bring back to the barn. And, just long enough to take in the sudden explosion of my tulips.

If you’ve been around for a while then you’ve already read about my completely overboard planting of 1,000 tulip bulbs in my 6m x 4m London garden. Since then, you’ll have caught glimpses of the tulips coming into bud here and there, and heard about my desperate impatience awaiting their flowering. But now, suddenly, here they all come.

I’ve had to rush back to the barn to be here for deliveries (although the chap who picked up my armchair a week ago still hasn’t delivered it and now says his van has broken down. I’m starting to wonder if he in fact knows the street value of a Lorford ‘Elmstead Loveseat’ which - if it ever arrives - is my proudest auction bargain ever at just £550+fees). But it was very, very difficult to leave my little garden behind. I sat outside for hours just taking it in. Tulips of every shape and colour. And many more still to come (no sign yet of ‘Belle Epoque’).

I’ve brought some of the tulips back with me. But only those that were small enough to fit in amongst the shrubs and roses, pots and delphiniums. In fact, I only included the pots of historic Jacques Amand bulbs that I really can’t bear to miss. Not that I think I’ll miss the others. I’ll be back in London in the coming days. But I couldn’t believe how much had happened in the three days I was away.

We had a small disaster after breaking sharply at an unexpected red light. We were only 20 mins from the barn, so for 2 hours all the many, many plants were happily balanced in the boot. However, the sharp stop sent many of the pots tumbling into the passenger footwell. Including some of my most precious bulbs.

On arrival, all have been resettled and secured but I fear irreparable damage has been done to at least a couple (‘Je Maintiendrai 1963’, ‘Rose des Dames’ *sniff*cough*sob*cough*). The worst effected were the pelargonium babies that just arrived from Fibrex. Dazed and bemused, Bella and Leo were covered in soil but were otherwise fine. Today I will go and find a handheld hoover thingy in order to remove the large amount of compost that is currently enriching the biodiversity of the car.

I took many, many photos of the tulips coming into bloom in Battersea, here are some which I hope I will be able to upload with this post while tethered to my phone. If not, I’ll go in search of wifi because these are too good not to share (the tulips, I mean, not my photography).

I took a big bunch to Katy and a big bunch to my darling neighbour (and Norman’s owner) Alex whose birthday was last week (I know, ok, I’m horrible at flower arranging). Even with those armfuls extracted, there are many, many left to enjoy. The rewards of a virulent case of Tulipmania.