Oh, loads. I live in bulb central...and have had a long love affair with tulips so many have fallen by the wayside. Most recently, I was, against all better judgement, seduced into growing doubles - so-called paeony tulips. Ghastly, ghastly grim. With much fanfare, 'Belle Epoch' was touted by the bulb catalogues and for some insane reason, this grower of clear, saturated colours, was persuaded to go for the faded, 'retro' look of coffee, creams and caramel colours. Disgusting. Tulips should be, single, capable of fully opened splendour with a serene geometry of line (no parrots here!) and deeply glowing reds, oranges, crimsons, plums, purples and deep pinks. I don't dislike pale tulips (in fact I grow a persistant 'Vancouver' and a couple of the pale viridifloras...but there are so many pastels and whites about...and I want a colour fix after a long, grey, dreary Brit winter.

Also, not really keen on picotee edges (but will go for flames and colour blends such as 'Princess Irene'. And although I love a deep red, I particularly dislike an orange-red such as Red Apfeldoorn.

Finally, I don't care for those Fosterianas and Darwins with overlarge blooms...but will faint with joy over the gorgeous chrysantha, linifolia, sprengeri, bakeri and humilis species.

The impressions I've seen in our neighbors yard seem to be reliable and petals last for a good 10 days+. Depends on how often it rains once she blooms...

I’ve grown la belle epoque and I absolutely loved her, the colors on that tulip are gorgeous.

Well, ya know - great passions will include intense negatives as well as positives. A lot of people swooned over Belle Epoch but in a grey english spring, in my tiny courtyard garden, it just looked washed out. Under a Mediterranean sky though...

Also, I have a lot of luck with perennial tulips - hot dry soil, baked all summer, cold and dry all winter, no snow...but you will never see a double making a reappearance.

Double tulips for the most part I’ve found aren’t great the second year, however that being said they are still my favorite despite the fact that I have to replace them each year. I have very large garden beds around my home, all my plants are perennial with the exception of tulips which I switch up every year since I treat them as annuals.

Doubles for me do come back, just not very well. Singles are nice also but for me they lack the wow factor that the doubles have (for me). I tried parrot tulips last year and I absolutely hated them, as soon as they bloomed I yanked them all out

All trial and error on what works best for each individual garden ;-)

Glossy, do you have a pic of Belle?

I do but it was only from a distance sadly

This one below isn’t my photo but the colors were closest to what mine looked like

Really nice colors, I’m planning another 50 bulbs this fall for planting, I absolutely loved this tulip. Tried a couple different varieties for this springs blooms and it’s too early to tell how those will make out

I've got Light and Dreamy and All That Jazz tulips, like them both. Ollioules is another pastel that I have and like. There is a pale lemon yellow one also but I don't know the name -- unlike most tulips, it has survived and rebloomed for years.

Glossy, thanks for the pics! She's a beauty.

Welcome! She is quite fab, well in my garden anyway, she did really well here.

If you want a swoon worthy tulip, take a gander at sensual touch double tulip

Not my photo but a very good representation of what it looks like.

I grew this one last season, when I cut a bouquet for my neighbor she promptly asked me if it was real and needs to go in water lol

truly drop dead gorgeous

Wow, that's my kind of tulips! That apricot color with the frizzy edge is the bomb!

Slightly reminiscent of the endless single or double convos I used to enjoy over on roses. No surprises when I say I favour the singles. Doubles do often stand well and can be longer lasting than singles (resisting pollinators) but for me, it is often a choice between colour and line...and as I favour the excessively gaudy, a certain austerity in petal geometry and simplicity of shape is a useful counter...as my gardens always run the possibility of collapsing into a luridly undefined mish-mash.

We make our choices as we can...and in a world where choice is often illusory, I value that process.

However, just wanted to reiterate - parrot tulips WTF! Hideous beyond belief...and I am keeping diplomatically silent (on another forum) about my intense dislike of those bizarre 'Ice Cream' tulips. No, no not for me.

Single dahlias too...although I might adventurously consider collarettes.

Glossy, very pretty. Years ago, I grew the pink double tulip, Angelique. Very pretty. I don't know if I removed it or the squirrels did. I did just recently purchase the double red tulip, Lasting Love, after seeing it mentioned in an English Gardening magazine from eons ago.

Raee, I forgot to mention that I also grow the tulip, Ollioules. Now that's beautiful tulip. I'll have to look up the other two that you mentioned. Thanks for the recommendations.

KarenPA she is sooo gorgeous, I’m on the hunt for her again but she’s hard to come by in Canada , hopefully the gardening gods will hear my plea this year lol!

Bella pics don’t do her justice, I have a thing for ‘peony’ like blooms and doubles fit that bill perfectly. Lasting love looks like a gorgeous variety too! I always love all your blooms! I grew Angelique as well but I found her a little wimpy in comparison to other doubles I had - really pretty but swoon factor wasn’t there for me. Maybe it was that i bought poor quality bulbs from Home Depot for testing purposes lol, I have her on my hit list again for this fall from a different source.

Campanula I’m with you on those parrot tulips, they are rather interesting but just not for me

Glossy, if you do a search on Lasting Love tulip on this forum, you'll see that someone posted a beautiful pic of it. In their pic, it appears to be a wine color. In the English gardening magazine, they show it as a red color. I love the tulip form - it's a lily variety, which I think are my faves. I do like the peony forms as well and maybe because I'm lazy at planting bulbs, lol, I never purchased any more.

I may have been the one who posted the photo of Lasting Love that bella mentioned; I was trying to ID it, and find it again (did at dutchbulbs.com). Both the previous years and last years plantings came back for me. It really is mostly a deep maroon or wine red for me, with very glossy petals. It is a real standout that I love!

You ladies are such enablers Lol, now i have yet another tulip to add to my hunting list!

i do my bulbs in large groups so I dig a few huge holes in the fall and then just stick them all in rows, makes it go a little quicker

raee, was that you? I ended up purchasing LL tulips on the K. van Bourgondien & Sons. I've never ordered from them before. BTW, how tall would you say the LL tulips are? The color is stunning. I can't wait to see it in person.

Bella, I popped out and measure the stems (the petals have all dropped) -- 16-18" from ground to the top of the pistil; the flower petals would add 2-3" I think.