Tiptoed Tulips

“Come tiptoe through the tulips with me.”

— Al Dubin, "Gold Diggers of Broadway," 1929

When tulips are in their glory, there are few flowers that can match their brilliance. Anyone who has been to Keukenhof in the Netherlands can attest to that (I’ve been twice, and yep, they are magnificent). But this spring, I wasn’t able to check out New York City’s tulip gardens in their prime as I have in past years. The first day I was able to take my camera to visit the community gardens in Riverside Park was May 2, and I used that opportunity to check out the tulip offerings.

While I did see some tulips in their prime, I was able to photograph more of what I call “tiptoed tulips,” the ones that have been through their “how gorgeous” phase yet have continued to be interesting in their more distressed phase.

Tulips in their glory, Riverside Park, May 2

A truly lovely tiptoed tulip, Riverside Park, May 2

Check out some more tiptoed tulips. All photos were taken on May 2 with my Sony A7 RIV camera, using a 24-70 lens.

I did see a few more “untiptoed” tulips, and I hope you find these as interesting as I did.

The community gardens in Riverside Park at 89th Street are so special, showcasing the floral imagination of fellow New Yorkers who appreciate how satisfying creating floral art with mulch and dirt and seeds and seedlings can be. On May 2, there were other flowers available for my viewing pleasure, and I photographed some of these, too.

Azalea blooms, Riverside Park, May 2

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Bleeding Hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis)

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

European columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris)

Bells of Ireland

Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)

I suppose it is only fitting to end this post with what I might call a “tiptoed fritillaria.”

Fritillaria imperialis

Tulips in the Wind

Before New York was New York, it was New Netherlands. The Dutch established New Amsterdam, the provincial capital, at the southern tip of Manhattan in 1624. New Amsterdam gave way to New York when the English took it over in 1664, not long after "tulip mania" had arrived and then collapsed in the Netherlands.

Red and yellow tulip, Green-Wood Cemetery, May 5, 2022

Yellow tulips near the Boathouse, Central Park

Purple tulip, Green-Wood Cemetery

All this history came to mind this spring when I photographed and filmed the glorious tulips in Central Park, on Cross Bay Boulevard, and in Green-Wood Cemetery in New York City in April and May. The first day I began to videotape the tulips in Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, the wind was blowing the tulips in magical ways. The gardeners this year created beds of multicolored hybrids, which I documented in a video, “Tulips in the Wind.” The music, by Chopin, is exquisitely performed by Olga Gurevich (obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source).

I took hundreds of photos of the tulips, and I offer them here. They were taken April 16 through May 12. There were times looking at these photos that I thought I was experiencing my own tulip mania, and I imagined I was at Keukenhof.

The photos in the groupings below were included in the video.