On the outskirts of Brussels, there’s a seventeenth-century castle made of brick and spiky things, where each year Dutch and Belgian growers show off their tulip collections.
I’m not a great fan of tulips laid out in beds according to variety. But tulips, after the breeders have had their way with them, can be weird and wonderful things, especially parrot tulips, so I went along. But this year has been so cold, there wasn’t a tulip to be seen. Actually, there was one, flowering all on its own: tulipa fosteriana ‘Pirand’. And that was it
.
Instead of the tulips, the earlier spring bulbs, which should have been over, were in full flower under the trees. I think I prefer them to tulips. There were some clever colour combinations. 
But what I found most interesting was that the bulbs were growing through a few of inches of coarse sand. I imagine this is because the sand warms faster than the cold clay beneath and encourages the bulb into growth. I must try it in my own inhospitable climate.
To make up for not having any tulips to look at, everyone packed into the covered display area, where there were some truly bizarre things to be seen. Someone had wasted packets of dye and endless time, to produce this:
The ‘Rainbow rose’. Not fabric. I wish it had been. I could indulge in a little rant here about squandered human ingenuity. But I won’t; I’ll pass on to another monstrosity, which is what happens when plant breeders get so carried away by their own genius, that they entirely forget about aesthetics. Would you really want this apology for a daffodill leering at you from your flowerbeds?
Gardening At The Edge 
Oh my. Well I’m glad you lived to tell the tale Kininvie. Do you think those roses were painted from the bottom up or top down? I understand your thinking about the warming sand but it looks less than natural– I first wondered if it could be snow. How rare, to have a tulip show with only one tulip. Even I could do that, plus I could display, at no extra cost, a morose concrete owl and a naked kiwi arbor.
I don’t know how they ‘created’ the awful rose, Linnie. I imagine they moved the stems to different pots of dye as the petals unfurled. So much wasted effort!
I live just south of Skagit Valley that is just north of Seattle in Washington State in the US. The Skagit Valley is home to some of the largest tulip bulb growers in the US and each April they open the fields to the public to be viewed. The fields draw over 500,000 visitors each year. I thought you might enjoy a little of the video from the 2012 event http://seattletrekker.com/gardening/tulip-festival.
Eeek! Not quite my idea of gardening – but kind of impressive. I enjoyed the Dutch windmill.
With you on the double daffs, Mr K. There are a few at the Priory – not only horrible but too heavy to stand upright. What’s the point? D
I have one or two of the less outrageous sort. Each year I look at them with a jaundiced eye, and reckon their time has come. But I never find the time to dig them out, and then I forget which clump they are. So, the brutes survive.
Hahaha! That “daffodil” looks like it’s had too many pornstar martinis (or orange reefs) on a Friday night! Imagine that! One of the happiest signs of spring and it’s come up smashed with a face full of vomit! Bleurgh!
Bleurgh! is right, Saadia. In fact, a good name. Narcissus ‘bleurgh’ – would sell well, I’m sure.
I know that some alpine growers grow bulbs in sand beds. They mix in a degree of soil but generally it is predomiantly sand. Which makes sense if you think that tulips come from Turkey originally.
As for the double daff I have a pot of something very similar that was sent to me by a bulb company to try. I am anticipating them being awful but am trying to be open minded!!
Were they awful, Helen? Can we see a pic?
I won’t say a word about that monster rose (ooops) just to agree with you about the split narcissus. Yes they call them so, although they look exploded rather than split, or better: scrambled.
The place must be nice to visit though, shame you did’t get what you went there for, that anemones stream puts up quite a show, doesn’t it?
Why do people do these things?
Nice place to visit. I too would pass on that monstrous Rose.
I think some daffodils should be strangled at birth, how do they ever get into the catalogues?! Sorry, but I like daffodils to look like daffodils, with a trumpet. The other spring bulbs look a lot nicer than the tulips would have done, at least your visit wasn’t wasted.
True, but I quite like parrot tulips, and I was hoping to see a few..
I have those weird daffs in my garden. They were smuggled into a mixed bag of daffs I bought on sale. They’re not my favorite but I leave them alone instead of pulling them out. I think of them as having a bit of extra character.
But what kind of character? Louche, arrogant, low-life. Overgrown pimps. The boy-racers of the spring flower beds…
Not fair Kininvie, you should have asked for your money back, even up here in Aberdeen we have more tulips on show. The double Daff is a bit of a sight but almost charming compared to the monstrous rainbow rose.
Shame about the Tulips, more in our garden at the moment and you know how the weather has been. Lets toss a coin, yes the Rose is the biggest monstrosity.
I agree.
Boy racers of the spring flower bed – Brilliant! As for THAT rose…………..