Eugene weekly., April 13, 2006, Page 35, Image 35

BY RACHEL FOSTER
Up with Orange
If it’s orange you’re after, tulips deliver.
S
especially rich in orange vari-
eties, and two of them have
captured my heart. I love
‘General de Wet’ for its unas-
suming form, gentle color and
sweet scent. Upstanding
‘Orange Emperor’ is simply
stunning, in a pure, unabashed
orange that is both light and
vivid at the same time. It’s
also the tallest and largest of
the early orange tulips. There
is nothing like it.
Besides tulips of the Single
Early class (home of ‘General
de Wet’), hybrid tulips for
April bloom include many
Triumph tulips. Among the
Triumphs, ‘King’s Orange’
and ‘Annie Schiller’ qualify as
pure orange; ‘Jan Ohms’ is, to
quote one of my catalogs, “a
sherbety blend of sunset coral,
apricot, pink and yellow.”
‘Toronto’ drifts around catalogs looking for a
home. It isn’t exactly orange but I would
hate for anyone to overlook it. The leaves are
prettily streaked with red like a Gregii, but
it’s 15 inches tall and multiflowered, in a
indescribable, soft yet assertive shade of —
what? Definitely not pink, but pinker than
salmon. Not as red as watermelon flesh.
Anyway it glows, and it’s a strong, reliable,
perennial tulip, one of my favorites for pots.
ince moving to an often gloomy
Willamette Valley I have become
more and more enamored of the
color orange. Nothing else lights up the gar-
den in quite the same way. Of course the
color orange, just like the fruit itself, is
variable, and not all of the colors we label
with the name are especially nice. Some of
them look harsh, lifeless and cold to me,
while a perfect shade of orange seems to
glow from within, like a flame.
Orange is not a particularly common
flower color. How many orange flowered
perennials can you name, besides chrysan-
themums, daylilies and kniphofias? Most of
the rest are bulbous or tuberous plants —
dahlias, crocosmia, Peruvian lilies, true
lilies and a slew of common and uncom-
mon spring flowering bulbs. Among these,
the flowers that seem most comfortable
being orange are tulips. As a group, tulips
are the year’s first truly showy flowers to
bloom in a wide range of colors. Wherever
the spring garden needs a strong shot of
color, any color (well, any color but blue),
there’s a tulip to fill the bill.
Tulips span the entire chunk of the spec-
trum that could pass for orange, from
almost-yellow apricot and to almost-red
coral, a range that makes a perfect comple-
ment for the abundant white, yellow, blue
and purple hues of springtime. I have yet to
see an orange tulip I don’t like, but I do
have some clear favorites. Early tulips are
Late April and early May brings a rush
of main season tulips. Orange pickings are
fewer, rarely fragrant and less pure in tone,
but they offer lots of variety of form.
If big is your thing, there is ‘Blushing
Apeldoorn,’ a Giant Darwin Hybrid with a
reasonable record for “coming back” next
year. Among doubles, there is ‘Orange
Princess.’ Like fringed tulips? There’s
‘Aleppo.’ There is even a parrot, a bit less
baroque than some, named
‘Orange Favorite,’ a late
Viridiflora, ‘Golden Artist,’ and the
hard to classify ‘Princess Irene,’
deep orange with plum flames.
Most of these I have never
grown, but I do grow and love the
fragrant Single Late tulip
‘Dillenberg,’ a stately classic in a
class unbeatable for long-lasting
flowers. I also like the Lily
Flowering ‘Ballerina.’ Catalog
descriptions a can be very mislead-
ing.
Scheeper’s
describes
‘Ballerina’ as lemon yellow with
scarlet red flames. Excuse me?
They do grant it a ‘marigold-
orange and red interior.’ I guess it
must show through.
Look around your garden in
April and early May, and see if
you can find a spot for some
orange tulips. Tulips need good
drainage, sunshine and enough
space for the foliage to die down
completely before something
smothers it. ‘Orange Emperor,’
‘Princess Irene,’ ‘Ballerina’ and
‘Dillenberg’ are varieties you should find in
local stores in September. Most of the other
tulips I have mentioned may have to be
ordered by mail or internet. Once you pro-
cure them, you have until Thanksgiving or
even Christmas to plant them. But now’s
the time to figure out where they should go.
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a garden consultant and author
of All About Gardens, a selection of past Eugene Weekly
columns. She can be reached at rfoster@efn.org
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April is
Sexual Assault
Awareness
Month
The Clothesline Project
April 15 • 10am-2pm
Saturday Market
April 24 • 11am-2pm
U of O Fir Room in the EMU
Survivors of sexual abuse can come design and
create a T-shirt which will be hung on the
clothesline in public spaces in our comminity.
Take Back the
Night March
April 27 • 6:30pm
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Starts at the University of Oregon’s EMU
Amphitheater, 13th Ave & University.
The ASUO Women’s Center and SASS are
co-sponsors of the event.
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8th Annual
Poetry of Survival
Sunday, April 23 • 4pm
Tsunami Books - 2585 Willamette, Eugene
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE!
SEXUAL ASSAULT SUPPORT SERVICES
591 W. 19th Ave., Eugene
24-hour Assistance - 343-SASS
or 800-788-4727
Bus. #484-9791
APRIL 13, 2006 35