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Monday 29 May 2017

Tulips and topping

The colour in the opposite field caught the eye immediately. 


 


My husband and I had never seen anything like it and after we explored part of the Appalachian Trail at Dromore, Prince Edward Island, we checked out the colour source. Tulips!


 


The farm grows tulips, rows of glorious colour, yellows, pinks, reds, purples, 


 


yellow-reds


 


interspersed with white. We were welcome to photograph them in all their glory and we did.


 


The aim is to harvest the bulbs for market later this year. Some bulbs are used for planting again later this fall to ensure next year's supply. 


 



While we watched, the farmer was topping the tulips, cutting off the flower to leave the green stem and leaves. This process allows the bulbs to strengthen before they are harvested for the market in the fall.


 


The flies were plentiful and biting that day so the farmer was in a fly/mosquito head net. It must have been hot in there.


 


We were sad to see those beautiful blooms cut and left in the hay between the beds but such is the nature of tulip farming. We were fortunate to see the field before topping was complete.

 




38 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

What a nice discovery for you.

Anonymous said...

What a glorious sight that must have been. My grandmother loved red tulips.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

SO gorgeous!

DJan said...

We have a tulip festival here every April. They are long gone but I too felt the same way seeing the tulips being topped at the end of the season. Your tulip fields are lovely. :-)

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Oh la! I love to have a bunch of tulips in a vase but to see them en masse like this is stunning Marie, the intense colours glorious!

Tomoko said...

Wow,so many colorful tulips! Your tulip field is delightful.

Joanne Noragon said...

We had a local farm that grew bulbs for market. They sold off everything but an acre around the house, and the field was filled every year with daffodils, free for the picking. Now that is for sale, too.

Elephant's Child said...

Aren't they glorious? Rainbows at ground level.

Bill said...

Beauty for the eyes. Such intense colours.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful...and pretty amazing ! I didn't know they topped off the heads! Andrea

Robert Smith said...

Absolutely beautiful! I love them. When I was but a wee lad I lived in Hampshire and because of the mild weather there there were fields full of them. Now I live in the cold Midlands I have a job to get tulips to grow in my garden. It might be the soil, it's very chalky.

Marie Smith said...

It was, AC.

Marie Smith said...

Your gran would have loved this spot, Mildred.

Marie Smith said...

It was beautiful, Debra.

Marie Smith said...

I remember reading about your trip to the tulips, Jan. I didn't realize we had such a field here.

Marie Smith said...

It was a glorious sea od colour, PDP.

Marie Smith said...

It is a place we will visit again, Tomoko.

Marie Smith said...

It is sad to see such a place disappear, Joanne. A little burst of beauty in a sometimes gray world.

Marie Smith said...

Love that description, EC. Ground rainbows!

Marie Smith said...

The intensity of the colours was part of the fascination for us too, Bill.

Marie Smith said...

It was a surprise for us to see the topping as well, Andrea.

Marie Smith said...

Such a great memory of your childhood, Keith. The soil here does a great job with tulips by the look of it.

Debbie said...

a part of the process we/i don't think about!! how amazing to find these, sad that they are not in a public garden somewhere, they are gorgeous!!!

Marie Smith said...

They are an important part of the economy here, Debbie.

Silver in AZ said...

absolutely stunning!

Marie Smith said...

They are indeed, SW.

Judith @ Lavender Cottage said...

What an amazing sight, swaths of bright colours - only to have their heads lopped off. I do understand the concept behind this, just as one should cut flowers off a new plant in the ground to send energy to the roots - I rarely do. ;-)

Marie Smith said...

It is hard to cut off those blooms, Judith. Essential in the tulip business.

Rick (Ratty) said...

Pretty good. I've never seen any kind of flower farm. The farms around here grow corn and soybeans.

Marie Smith said...

It was a first for me too, Ratty.

The Happy Whisk said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhh.

Karen said...

Wow, are you sure you didn't take a quick trip to The Netherlands? :)

Marie Smith said...

It is amazing to see, HW.

Marie Smith said...

I know, Karen. It is incredible.

Down by the sea said...

Those colours are stunning! Sarah x

Marie Smith said...

Indeed they are, Sarah.

The Furry Gnome said...

Amazing colours! Like the ones we saw out west. But the Appalachian Trail in Dromore?

Marie Smith said...

Unbelievably, there is part of the Appalachian Trail in PEI.