Tulip Silver Parrot

I got a Longfield Gardens package of these Silver Parrot tulips from a friend who ran out of time to plant. They went into the ground very late in my Zone 5b, but you’d think I really knew how to garden if you saw these tulips in person. These are the first parrot tulips I’ve ever grown. They’re large and cup shaped. When they first cracked bud, they looked odd to my eyes (since Id only ever grown single tulips). It was almost like two big C shaped petals, two halves. With the petals still so tight, the pink is very vivid and almost neon. They sat like that for a solid week, then as they opened and the intensity was distributed over the huge petal surfaces with silvery white veining, the charm and drama of these beauties was clear. Wow. In a bouquet with white-to-pink doubles, Merlot tulips, and Tahiti daffodils, they are booming. They’ve retained that overall goblet shape without the symmetry (movement without the twistedness of some parrots) and totally remind me of bird wings, like a flamingo adjusting its position. Light yellow at its bottom throat, brownish black short stamens, inside, and feathery tips. This is a stunner.