Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms—Species Tulips (Tulipa Bakeri, 2019)

The first species tulips in the garden started blooming on March 10 this year. These are Tulipa bakeri, a pretty pink with a blazing yellow center. I planted several hundred of these years ago. Most were devoured in a season by ground squirrels, but about a dozen survive. Always nice to see them in the spring.

It is from species like these that  what most people think of as tulips today were developed. Tulips are native to places like Turkey and the countries of the Caucasus region. This is a variety called "Lilac Wonder." Tulipa bakeri bloomed in the garden on March 5 in 2009 and on March 16 in 2010 (although I seem to have two contradictory dates for 2010--also February 24), on March 14 in 2011, on March 4 in 2012, on February 25 in 2013, on March 6 in 2014, on February 20 in 2015, and on March 9 in 2018, so this is toward the late end of the range I've noted over the years, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Tulipa clusiana

First blooms today on the pretty yellow and rust-red species tulip Tulipa clusiana. Most of these were eaten by squirrels a few years back. That prompted me to plant a lot of daffodils, as they are poisonous and the squirrels ignore them.

Of about 300 Tulipa bakeri bulbs we had, about 30 are left (see previous post), and most of the clusiana bulbs are gone, too, but a few clumps survive here and there around the garden. The brick red is on the outside of the petals. It's visible only before the flowers open or when they close up for the night. The interiors are yellow. This and bakeri have proven the most dependable of the species tulips  here in Northern California. I don't have a record of their first bloom last year, so can't add this one to my botanical calendar--until next year.