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Tulipa cretica
20 May 2010
The first plant we were given when we moved here in 1971 was a little tulip. It was collected in Crete by John Raven, former Dean of my college, King’s, at Cambridge and author of A Botanist’s Garden, a genially learned little book I still read now and then to enjoy a civilized mind at work in the garden. His garden at Shepreth is still tended by his widow, Faith. Their daughter Sarah is a television gardening star.
Tulipa cretica is still where I planted it, in a dry corner without much sun. Every year the patch gets a little bigger because this is one of the tulips that put out stolons, instead of offsets, to colonize new ground. I don’t think I’d call it beautiful, but association and memory have a way of affecting the eyesight.
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