Tulips

Sometimes I come across a picture that stays on my mind all day.  Such was the case yesterday when I saw this beautiful image on Decorology:

Just looking at this scene makes me happy.  I always love a casual dining area that has windows with light streaming in (if I ever build a house, I will need to have the kitchen facing east so I get the morning light at breakfast).  However, what really inspired me about this picture was the bunch of tulips on the table; the burst of red in the middle of the fresh light room is striking (and I love how the branch of the tree in the backyard looks like it is part of the tulip arrangement).   Without a doubt, tulips are my favorite flowers.  So great is my love of tulips, that I had my bridesmaids carry a simple bouquet of white tulips, and my bouquet was comprised of white tulips and pale, pale pink roses. (Photography by the very talented Annie Schlechter)  

In this room, designed by Ginger Barber, the tulips are a nice little burst of color in a neutral setting, and pink is an unexpected color in this room.  Via Cote de Texas.

I am not a tulip expert, but I believe these are parrot tulips.  I once went to a wedding where the theme was red and yellow (it was the most fabulous, dramatic, and sophisticated wedding I have ever been to).  Parrot tulips, red roses, and red/yellow orchids were all used to great effect.  Image and interiors by Caldwell-Beebe.

I saved this picture for the beauty of the window in the background. However, I also love the contemporary tulip arrangement on the table - how many tulips did it take to make this arrangement? Quite a few! Image Slettvoll, via Willow Decor.

I remember really liking the way in which designer Ty Larkins used tulips in this room - look in front of the mirror on the right, and you will see small vases with just one or two tulips in each vase. It is the small details like this that make a room so beautiful.  I recently went to a friend's house for a meeting, and she had such a memorable arrangement of tulips on her kitchen table - one or two stems in small bud vases that were of varying heights.  I wish I had taken a picture!  Image via Cote de Texas.

One of my all time favorite designers, Gerrie Bremermann, uses a lush arrangement of tulips on an antique French commode.  Via Cote de Texas.

Barbara Barry is one of my favorite designers, and I was not surprised to find tulips in a picture from her furniture line for Henredon (white, no less - perfection).  The white tulips play off the calligraphy style script etching so beautifully.

Another Bremermann designed room, with an arrangement of white tulips. This is one of my favorite rooms, and I love the art by Amanda Talley.

Either I have an affinity for pictures with white tulips, or the designers I like tend to use them more than any other color!  This is one of my favorite rooms by Kerry Joyce.  Look at the profusion of tulips on the mantle - in vases with different shapes and sizes - plus a big vase of tulips on the table. This would be a hard look to maintain day after day (not to mention expensive), but it is beautiful styling for a photo! 

Another great picture by Annie Schlechter.  There is something so right about red tulips in a blue vase.

One of my highlights of 2008 was being invited to a White House Christmas party. Huge arrangements of tulips were all over the White House that evening; this one in front of a portrait of President Reagan was my favorite.

In the spring I love to buy tulips from the grocery store, and this month I have been selecting different shades of pink.  Normally I do not gravitate to pink, mainly because it looks horrible with my coloring. However, I love how it looks against the green walls of my family room; it must be the preppy in me.  (The screened in porch in the background is getting cleaned and painted as soon as the weather improves - which is why it is empty right now!).

I personally love the life cycle of tulips when they come home from the store: the first day, they are upright and proud. Slowly but surely, over the next few days, the heads of the tulips begin to droop under their own weight, which adds a beautiful sculptural quality to the arrangement.  When I googled 'drooping tulip', I learned that tulips begin to droop because they continue to grow even after they are cut, and eventually droop because the stem can no longer support the weight of the flower.  Some suggest to put just a little water in the vase, and change it every day. Others suggest putting a pin through the stem just below the flower, when the tulip is newly opened; according to anecdotal evidence, this not only prevents the tulip from drooping, it also makes it last longer.  It might be an interesting idea to get a bunch of tulips and put a pin through the center tulips, so they stay nice and upright, and let the outer tulips droop. I may have to try that when I buy next week's tulip bouquet.

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