The wrong colour!

Issue everyone with dark glasses Hilda

Maybe they will fade in the sun Hilda!

Orange looks great with herbs. Yellow is sooooooo last year!

Not sure I'm cut out to be a trend setter!

It's one of the joys of gardening HildaW, that things rarely turn out as we'd expected, or hoped.

Why do you have tulips in a herb garden?

I have planted lots of dark purple and white tulips in the borders a few years ago- but a few have turned out to be bright yellow with red edge- I meant to dig them up and replant elsewhere- but of cours by the time they had faded, could not remember which was which- so this year I'll tie a bit of raffia around the stem. Will dig them up and plant on the other side of the house this year.

How about enjoying them this year- and then dig up, dry and give to a friend who likes the colour- or replant in pots for the front of the house for next year. Tulips do look great in a herb garden, I agree.

Hope mine will flower this year, because last year the shoots all got bitten off by either a pigeon or a squirrel! I don't mind what colour they are as long as they survive!

Why not have tulips in a herb garden ?
Bet they look pretty apart from the colour not suiting of course !

Oh to have tulips that didn't get eaten by roe deer. Any colour would be just fine!

My tulips all got a bit squashed in the recent hail storms

Absent - for aesthetic reasons only, most herbs reach their peak late summer and until then it can look a bit thin, the tulips add a bit of structure and colour whilst there are gaps. I have deliberately chosen short lilly shaped ones that do not dominate, hence my gripe at the orange colour. White and pale yellow looked suitably demure!

I do sympathise. I have a front garden pink and white border. I ordered some white gladioli to stand in a clump at the back and they are scarlet! I dug them up and handed them to a friend who has a rainbow border, but they like my soil so much that they bred new corms fast and I still get the odd spike of red. I just pick them now.

Likewise at the very front to the road, I have a beech hedge and planted a large row of cream narcissi before it. Some of them are yellow. Again, as soon as I see that they are the wrong colour, I pick them. But it's very annoying and happens often. Iris reticulata Harmony instead of the Cantab that I wanted - Harmony from three different sources over four years! In the end I had to buy Cantab while it was in flower in a pot to be sure to get the one I wanted.

I think nursery workers don't have the time they used to, to be more careful. It's all a big rush. I speak from experience.

I thought my tulips were planted randomly, a mix of pale cream and a purple but they have grown in colour groups! I reckon they moved after I planted them!

I never wanted orange in a garden until a few years ago when I suddenly liked it; I think it was having a pot full of million bells in a mixture of orange, red and purple that did it; orange and purple now being my favourite colour combination [I always plant lots of heliotrope [sp]].

.....mind you wrong coloured bulbs aren't as bad as the blue wisteria that my ex planted in his new garden; having waited years for it to grow and flower it turned out to be white .

Tegan, I am a late convert to orange - its a jolly colour in the right place.....its just that I fancied something a bit gentle and tasteful (unlike myself).

And nice to have something that reminds us what sun looks like....!

Which reminds me that my californian poppies should be coming through soon. I caught my neighbour pulling them up once [in MY garden ] and I said 'they're my poppies' to which he grunted and said 'hmph, you mean poppy weeds'. grrrr

It happens a lot doesn't it?Annoying if the plants cost a lot, like some lupins we planted 2 years ago, nothing like the colours we wanted and very pricey too.

When I plant my bulbs , get Mr N to make a "Slit" with the spade , put in 3/4 bulbs.
Get a better "show" than with single bulbs dotted about !

OH yes Nonu, I've always done most planting in groups of 3, 5 or 7 (ish) can't remember who told me to, its just always been there in the back of my mind.

I write the colour on the tulip leaf in indelible felt tip just before the petals fall. I always dig up my tulips anyway so this means I can bag them up in the correct colours. It's those first-year bulblets which are just leaf and no flower that always get replanted in the wrong colour group! Can't win.
No deer here at least no roaming wild. I have a lovely old highland recipe for venison stew Bags if you're up for a bit of poaching culling?

My Californian poppies are just coming through, tegan! Won't be long now.