Garden pornography

...as it is universally known on gardenweb. I think Michael Pollan uses the phrase when talking about garden catalogs as well. What else could you call the stack of full-color garden catalogs I’ve been carrying from room to room? It’s time to order tulips and other fall-planted bulbs and I still haven’t decided between all the lush, brilliant, fabulousness I’ve been poring over for the last week and a half. These flowers are just as oversaturated and impossible as, I guess, the women in the better skin mags.

Uh, anyway, ordering fall bulbs makes facing the end of summer much easier. As everything in the garden begins to decline—not yet though—you can look forward to bright spring things. (God, I sound like nature girl—I am NOT nature girl.) I do love imagining how they will look in my garden, even if I know things won’t quite turn out that way.

I know I’m getting the freakish T. acuminata and the sort of freakish Black Parrot for accents in the front. Probably a couple other species tulips as well for the same spot (tulips do not last well here, even species, and need to be replaced often) and then some orange and purple Triumphs for forcing and containers. Dark purple and light creamy pink hyacinths for forcing and containers.

But what about the mix for the front circular beds? What should I get?

I’m looking at these:


and these:


and these:

Comments

bluefools said…
HAHAHAHA!!!! When my gardening catalogs come in the mail, my husband proudly announces: "Honey, your porn is here!" :) Glad to see I'm not the only one who salivates over the catalogs lovely, but unattainable colorized pictures :)
Crystal said…
I get a ton of those catalogs and last year I ordered from "Brecks" but all my bulbs failed. I'm not gonna even bother with tulips anymore, only daffodils which I will store in my fridge for forcing. My husband says the flowers in the pictures are probably fake anyway. All I know is, an amateur like me can never hope to get a good result and bulbs are a lot of work for only 2wks. of enjoyment come Spring!
EAL said…
What I've heard is: NEVER order from Brecks! I stick to Van Engelens and Brent and Becky's. And, for all my joking, I must say that I still love tulips. If you time it right with early and late ones, you can get over a months of blooms out of them.
I have to agree with your assessment of Brecks. That's where I ordered from last year and I was quite disappointed. Plus (in Canada anyway) they are a lot more expensive than other places. By the way, the first time I heard the "porn" analogy was on this web site. I have passed it on and it got a few good laughs.
EAL said…
I wish I could take credit for it--but I read it first on either gardenweb.com or maybe Michael Pollan's book.

Not to be a shill, but the scheepers site I link to is great for tulips. Not for lilies--they mislabel though the flower quality is great.

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