It has not been the best of springs for the tulips. The past month has not been exceptionally wet, after a wet winter, but the wind has been relentless – days and days, weeks and weeks of strong and gusty winds. Cherry blossom was there and gone within days, even more ephemeral than usual, and I have been praying that the weather remained cool and the tulips stay shut so they avoided getting ruined. Some opened and were quickly spoiled with snapped petals and the ground strewn with colourful remnants.

Of the new tulips, bought and planted last autumn, ‘Orange Marmalade’ would not wait. It was planted in a raised bed which is quite windy and most of the stems are now leaning to the north, a result of strong southerlies. But then I did not have great hopes for this bed. Seen from the kitchen window, I try to put something special in here but by autumn I gave up trying to coordinate the tulips with the bedding plants and I just dug up my Barnhaven primula seedlings, mixed them up and put them in. The resulting mix of colours was never going to be a good backdrop to the tulips but at least they will be put in the garden in May when the bed is changed and be useful for years to come.

‘Orange Marmalade’ is a Viridiflora tulip with a green streak through the centre of each petal. In general, I find that Viridiflora tulips last longer than others, perhaps because the green, leaflike centre has a stronger grip on life, and the pedicel, than coloured petals. The flowers are irregularly constructed and they have survived the buffeting winds as well as I could reasonably expect, and far better than others.

Most of the tulips I buy in each autumn are based on novelty and on price. Because I need 50 for this bed and I like to plant at least half a dozen pots too, and add a few others to garden beds, cost has to be a factor. I get second use from them all and I lift the bulbs, dry ad sort them and these are planted in another raised bed to produce cut flowers the following season. Some prove stronger than others so the selection for cutting varies each year. ‘Cream Cocktail’ with variegated foliage and yellow flowers has proved to be amazingly strong and persists well. Although I try to lift all the bulbs in the cutting bed I always miss some and these pop up again the following year and bloom.

But last autumn I could not resist a new ‘black’ tulip that was getting a lot of attention. It is called ‘Nightmare’ and is allegedly ‘very’ black. The naming of plants often baffles me – cultivars not scientific names, which are completely sensible. Why ‘Orange Marmalade’? Marmalade is usually orange so surely an orange tulip with a green stripe should be ‘Green Marmalade’? Anyway, while I appreciate that plant breeders may be running out of names, if you want to sell a plant, why call it Nightmare?

As it happens, it was a slight nightmare since I bought five bulbs and one only produced a leaf. So I only had four flowers. Why so worried? Well, because the bulbs cost 5 euro each! That is far more than I usually spend on tulip buds. My plan was to plant ‘Queen of Night’ and ‘Black Parrot’, the two most common black tulips, to compare, but I didn’t get round to it. So I can’t really say if ‘Nightmare’ is the blackest tulip available. But it is dark.

When the flowers opened I was disappointed but, as they have developed, they have indeed darkened until now they are pretty black. Of course, the camera doesn’t like this at all and compensates so the photos really do not represent the colour well. A notable feature is that the top of the flower stem is also very dark.

I will carefully lift and dry the bulbs and give them special treatment so that if I plan better this autumn I can do a comparison with other black tulips.

‘Purple Doll’ is a sport of the inexpensive and easy ‘Doll’s Minuet’. Straddling Lily-flowered and Viridiflora, it is a pretty and not-too-tall tulip and bright and colourful. Despite being blown and buffeted, it has held up well and every day the blooms open wider to greet the tardy appearance of the sun.

‘Brown Sugar’ is in a more sheltered place and has been slower to develop, only now starting to open. It will be interesting to see how ‘caramelly’ the flowers become but I like orange tulips so I am happy with this one already and I like the foliage and stout habit.

Two pots are planted with ‘Ballade’ and ‘Ballade Lady’, Lily Flowered tulips in pink and purple shades. They are quite tall so I was hoping they would keep their buds resolutely closed and green until the weather changed. My hopes were fulfilled and only yesterday they started to colour up and then, as though knew spring would only last a day, the blooms opened in the warm sun. We seem to be in for a settled week so I will relax and enjoy the tulips. It confirms that I am right to choose late-flowering tulips because there is then a chance they may bloom to greet the improving weather.

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