Tulip

I thought I knew everything a gardener could know about tulips until I read Theodore James book. TULIP has a few things to teach me. I bought several hundred bulbs last week - as I do every year - because something eats my bulbs. If I don't replace them in the fall, I don't get any blooms in the spring. I need all the help I can get fighting bulb poachers, and James has a few tricks up his sleeve concerning ways to outfox rodents and other wildlife seeking a bulb meal. I intend to try them this season. The most pleasing aspect of this book for me, however, it that even if you don't plant tulips you can enjoy the book. Think of it as your "I dream of spring" winter book. James provides dozens of photographs of tulips growing alone or with companion plants, as well as text containing the names and heights of varieties of tulips as well as colors. Missing from the book are blooming times, but in my experience the blooming times of bulbs, per the Dutch bulb growers are never accurate as bulb blooming is always affected by the weather conditions in your neck of the woods. The individual bulb labels provided by your local nursery will include the nebulous blooming times if you really want them. As far as I am concerned, pictures are worth a thousand words, and there are dozens of photographs of various tulips in bloom in this swell little monograph. I highly recommend this book for beginning gardener and old hands like me who love tulips.