PARROTS
For years I worshipped at the shrine of the lily flowering tulip. Tall, slim and elegant, the lily flowering tulip is everything I aspire to and is also closest in appearance to the wild tulips that got the world started on its long love affair with these spring flowering plants. For years I bought lily-flowering tulips, especially in shades of white and yellow, to line my front walk. They reminded me of tall, thin movie stars like Fred Astaire or William Powell of Thin Man fame. They even drooped elegantly.
I still love those tulips and I would never tear out the survivors, but now I have a new passion–parrot tulips. About all the parrots have in common with the lily flowering tulips is height. Both varieties top out at about twenty-two inches tall. Lily flowering tulips are erect and spare with smooth petal edges, while parrots are voluptuous with petal edges that are ruffled, frilled and curled with wild abandon. They are meant to be seen with their plump cups open, petals spilling out everywhere. Many are vividly colored; each petal marked, swirled or flamed with an Impressionistic mix of complementary and contrasting tones that can be best appreciated through close inspection. A perfect example is the exuberant ‘Markgraaf van Baden’, which is flaming red and yellow with some green thrown in for good measure. Its appearance is downright infernal–but in a good way.
Most modern garden tulips are the result of deliberate hybridizing efforts. Parrot tulips, however, are serendipitous freaks of nature arising from sports or spontaneous genetic mutations of established varieties, especially single late and triumph tulips. The lovely purple ‘Blue Parrot’, for example, is a 1916 sport of a single late tulip called ‘Bleu Aimable’. The absolutely gaudy yellow and red-flamed ‘Flaming Parrot’ is a sport of anther parrot tulip, ‘Red Parrot’. ‘Fantasy’, which is orange-pink with green stripes, is a sport of an old favorite, the pink-flowered ‘Clara Butt’, and ‘Green Wave’, a pink, green and white wonder, is a sport of the more sedate ‘Greenland’.
But what if you are one of t hose people for whom outrageous beauty simply isn’t enough? At least one parrot, the orange, rose and green ‘Orange Favorite’, is also fragrant. ‘Silver Parrot’, which is actually pink and white, has variegated foliage, with each lance-shaped leaf edged in cream.
The name parrot comes from the appearance of the petals. Sources differ on the specifics, but someone long ago decided that either the gaudy petal array looked like parrots’ feathers or the flower buds looked like parrots’ beaks.
Like great art, parrot tulips were meant to be showcased , and they have long been desirable for cut flower bouquets and arrangements. This is fortuitous, as some varieties have such enormous flower heads that when the blooms are fully open the stems may not up to the task of supporting them. In the garden you can prevent that by staking or using grow-through plant supports to hold up all those heavy heads. If a storm threatens when your parrots are blooming, it’s best to pick, protect or support them, as they are highly susceptible to wind and water damage.
Genetic mutations have occurred sporadically in tulips as long as the plants have been cultivated and many parrots are now considered heirlooms. The flashy ‘Markgraaf van Baden’ was introduced in 1750. ‘Café Brun’, a gold, amber and red tulip, dates to 1840. One of the more modern parrots, ‘Estella Rijnveld’, is a child of the twentieth century, introduced in 1954.
Using parrots in the garden takes some thought. An entire bed of mixed parrot tulips would be, in my opinion, too much, because the wild swirl of pattern and color wouldn’t allow onlookers to really appreciate the unique charms of individual varieties. One way of showcasing parrots would be to intermingle them with their parent varieties–for example ‘Bleu Aimable’ with ‘Blue Parrot’–or other singles with the same colors. You could also aim for contrast, mixing the near-black ‘Black Parrot’ with a white tulip like ‘Maureen’. If you decide to pair parrots with singles, be sure to use late-blooming single varieties, so flowering times will coincide.
Like many tulip varieties, parrots are persnickety about returning. I solve this problem by buying new ones every year. If the previous year’s selections return as well, it’s fine. If not, there is more space for something else.
Artists, florists and professional growers have long loved the parrot tulip. Next spring my garden will betray the fact that I have joined the love-in.
You can obtain parrot tulips from Old House Gardens, 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103, (734) 995-1486, www.oldhousegardens.com (catalog $2.00). Another good source is John Scheepers, 23 Tulip Drive, PO Box 638, Bantam, CT 06750, (860) 567-5323, www.johnscheepers.com (free catalog).