Tulip

'Blue Parrot' is useful for extending your displays as it blooms in late spring. A member of the parrot group of tulips, it has distorted flowers that you either love or hate. Despite its name, it is violet rather than blue in colour. Tulips are best planted in November as this minimises the risk of attack from the fungal disease, tulip fire, which causes the foliage to become distorted and covered with fuzzy, grey fungal growth and the flowers to either fail to open or to be marked with bleached spots. Any bulbs that become infected with this disease are best thrown away and the ground they were planted in should not be used to grow any tulips for several years. Remove the flowers as they fade to prevent plants wasting energy setting seed.