Tulips

These tulips were interplanted among the agastache last fall. Some of these are on the wane, but for the most part they've held up remarkably well against many days of high winds. These were from an end-of-season bulb sale, and I had only a rough guess as to what the colors would look like, truly, and how they would fit together. I'll confess a moment of "oh, no!" when the dark tulip (the "claret-colored" unknown identified in "First Bloom Today" in the sidebar—turns out to be 'Negrita') was joined by the adjacent pink-orange tulip (the "salmon-peach" unknown—turns out to be 'Pink Impressions')...I did not think the combination would work (cacophony! I thought), and started fretting about whether to move Pink Impressions to a more harmonious spot, perhaps next to Rosanna in the lavender bed. But as the colors deepened and the rest of the tulips emerged (the "persimmon" unknown is 'Gordon Cooper'; the "ruby-colored peony-flowered" is still unidentified, alas [updated: found my cheat sheet—it's 'Black Hero']), they've come together in a way that I never would have been able to plan. I like it very much.