Purple Tulips

I love purple tulips. I struggle to limit how many I order every year-there’s Black Parrot, Queen of Night, Paul Scherer…Commercially, all the other colors sell better. I have come to accept that I must limit myself to one variety only per year because that’s what the market will bear. But why do I love it so much in spring? I’m here to convince you it’s because purple is THE color of spring! Actually, the combination of purple, yellow, white and green are the official mixture of spring. Once you start looking for it, you can’t stop seeing it everywhere: Dandelions and violets in a weedy field, Redbuds against the greenish yellow of leaves just budding out in the forrest.

Like Merryl Streep’s speech in The Devil Wears Prada, we think we are choosing for ourselves what we are attracted to, but there are so many outside forces deciding these things for us. Why are rusts, browns, and deep reds perrennial fall decor and clothing offerings? Because we are mimicking nature. Why are summer clothes bright? The light cast by the high sun makes the riot of natural colors available even more energized. A quick google search of “Spring Colors” summarizes: Lilac, Lavender, Sky Blue, Yellow and spring green. Nature deciding for us. I find this idea deeply comforting. I have a small, gnawing fear of being cut off from nature-lost in the concrete and metal of a futuristic, computerized world. I like the idea that my eyes are exposed to nature everywhere, secretly recording my experiences and then making me like purple whether I realized why or not.

Yellow: Daffodils, dandelions, mustard and brassica blossoms, new leave growth, forsythia, wallflowers

Purple: Redbuds, violets, lilacs, hellebores, tulips, crocuses, hyacinths, muscari/grape hyacinth, anemones, irises, azaleas, bluebells, foxgloves, columbines, lupines

White: Spirea, snowdrops, lucojeum, daffodils, tulips, appleblossoms, ranunculus, anemones, crocuses, azeleas, foxgloves, peonies