Brocade Designs

We are often asked about what’s in season throughout the year, and so I thought it might be fun to offer a weekly feature on different seasonal flowers on our blog and facebook. While the global flower market is in production year round, there are still certain flowers that you can only get at certain times of year, or those that have a “peak” or “preferred” season. So, to kick off this series, let’s start with a spring favorite: Tulips!

During this time of year, tulips are grown in mass production in Holland, as well as pop up in yards everywhere. Offering a variety of colors and styles, tulips are a versatile bloom to tell a particular color story. Their beautiful and delicate arch and curviture of the stem make for a modern look, and can provide a great complement or alternative to Calla Lilies.

The prime season for tulips run from the early winter months of December to late spring in mid-to-late May. Chilean tulips are available in October and November. They are a bulb plant.

There are a few different types of tulips, standard and novelty.

TIP: “Standard” means a typical, readily available, mass market variety. You’ll hear this often when talking about “Standard” roses, tulips, mums,etc. It’s kind of the text book example of what you think this flower is. Now there can be “standard” styles of a flower with “novelty” colors– meaning it’s a standard form and shape, but the color variety is unique.

More specifically, there are types of tulips specific for growers (15 of them, in fact) that include everything from early tulips to Rembrant and French. To keep things simple, we’re going to just stick to broad categories that are fairly comprehensive

Standard Dutch Tulips: These come in a variety of colors, everything from solids to varigated shades:

Standard Tulips have a vase life of 7-10 days with regularly changed water. We recommend adding some ice cubes to the water daily so that the cut arrangement can last longer. We also recommend changing out the water every other day and re-cutting the stems: tulips have a secretion they put into the water that can cause for the water to become bacteria filled and make it hard for the flower to drink water.

Colors: whites, creams pinks, yellows, purples, reds, orange, bi-color orange and pink, bi-color pink and white, bi-color yellow and orange, and more.

French Tulips: French Tulips have longer stems and larger heads that standard tulips, and a beautiful open. Typically you will find them in pale pastel colors and creams and whites. They are absolutely gorgeous in cut flower arrangements.

Parrot Tulips: Parrot Tulips have a different texture to their petals that produce almost a crinkling or wrinkling effect that resembles feathers (thus the name) and come in a variety of colors. Personally, I love these for cut flower arrangements moreso than bouquets, because when they open up they open up nice and wide and show off their color variations nicely. They also typically have shorter stems, making them more ideal for lower arrangements or submerged arrangements

Frill Tulips : Frill tulips (or “Fringe Tulips”) are my current obsession–they are so unique and lovely. I like them in arrangements and in bouquets. The whites are paritcularly impressive, and their bi-colored friends have edges of color on their tips. There’s one in particular that is the Pantone color for spring– Honeysuckle– with a yellow-orange tip along the edges that is just phenomenal:

Next week, we will talk about another spring-y favorite: Ranunculus! Feel free to leave a comment on our facebook page or here about blooms you’d like to learn more about!