After the delight of the brownish tulip ‘La Belle Epoque’ which I posted about last week I am rather less enamored by the performance of this one. ‘Calimero’ is a Double Early with the distinction of having variegated leaves. Each leaf is lined in creamy white. The flowers should be double and bright yellow. This is a new tulip, registered in 2007 and should reach about 25cm high.

I was a bit disappointed when I got the bulbs because they were a bit small and that rang alarm bells. Flowering sized tulip bulbs vary in size: smaller bulbs will flower but the stems will be shorter than normal and the flowers will also be smaller – in the case of doubles the flowers will not have as many petals as expected. So my bulbs have not really performed as they should have and the stems are only about 15cm high and the blooms are only barely double. It is all a bit disappointing but, in fairness, the flowers are bright enough and the short stature is well suited to the pots. I think I made a mistake pairing them with the yellow violas though!

Geoff’s rating

7/10

Garden rating

8/10