Flames Mystery

If you want to start the Tulip season with a colourful bang, plant Flames Mystery, what a colour. It was a bit of a shock for me too when I first saw her. It was early April when I drove through the Boermansweg in Anna Paulowna, the first Daffodils were just starting to bloom a little.

Suddenly, halfway across the country, half a bed of Tulips in full bloom with a fabulous intense red color. Or better said, a reddish color. Because the 'Mystery' part in her name certainly has to do with her color, her color is hard to describe.

When the sun shines she looks orange, when there is a cloud in front of the sun she turns more pink and when there is a big cloud in front of the sun you say she is red. But with or without clouds in front of the sun, she stands out like no other. A beautiful short tulip that also does very well in pots and on flower boxes.

Flames Mystery is of the 'fosteriana' Tulip type, a group that blooms early and long. The long flowering is not always because the flowers are so much stronger than other Tulips. The biggest gain in flowering time for the fosteriana Tulips is the fact that it is always much colder at the beginning of April than at the beginning of May. Under cooler conditions, Tulip flowers last much longer.