You Call That “Scarlet Red?!”

I planted red tulips last fall. Or so I thought. I decided I needed more red in the garden and had settled on Tulip Ad Rem because it was described as “scarlet red.” To me, scarlet red is bright red...not this orange that I have growing in my garden right now.

Actually, the photo looks even more red than it really is. Seriously, I would call it orange more than red. In all honesty, the photo on the website looked similar to this, but I really thought the photo maybe wasn’t accurate and it would be more “scarlet” as described. Or maybe I just have a misconception of what scarlet really looks like.

This wouldn’t be the first time I was fooled by a garden catalog photo or description. You may remember my Pass the Wine Iris post where I expected to get a deep reddish-wine colored iris and ended up with something more lavender than anything else. That one DEFINITELY did NOT end up like the photo at all. Still pretty, though. And really, this tulip is pretty, too. It does have nice color variations in each petal. If you look at it from above, it looks more red. But then how often would one look at them like that, really? If I was a bird maybe this is the perspective I would have all the time.

So it is a disappointment not to have that vibrant red that I wanted in my otherwise drab spring garden. Sigh... I’ll give it a chance. Maybe it will turn more red as it matures. I know, I know, wishful thinking. I will just have to appreciate it for what it is. Orange. And orange or not, it’s still pretty.