What Happens When Spring gets Super Fancy

It's that time of year again! Springtime has arrived and is getting all dressed up in its seasonal best. Trees, shrubs, and plants are showing off their colors everywhere, and even our tulips are getting Super Fancy.

You may remember the celebrated variety of Ice Cream Tulips which made their Sun Valley debut around this time last year. We sold out almost immediately. Though we are producing more bunches this season (and adding more varieties, to boot), their ever-increasing popularity is making these sweet visual treats disappear as quickly as you can murmur, "Wow."

Ice Cream Tulips are a very special Super Fancy variety, which growers and breeders know as DLTs, or double late tulips. The "double" refers to the layers of white petals inside which slowly extend above outer pink petals, and eventually completely open to show off its full splendor. Because of the sheer volume of petals, DLTs are also referred to as "peony tulips."

Some of the other Super Fancy varieties we have added this year are the breathtaking multi-fringed Double Touch and Queensland. Check out those ruffled layers!

Triple-fringed Queensland


Multi-layered Double Touch

We grow all our Super Fancy Tulips in our Arcata Hoop Houses, which is necessary for two reasons: 1) The hoop houses provide plenty of natural light, which is needed to achieve those rich outer colors, and 2) The open sides allow the fresh morning air and cool evening breeze of the North Coast to circulate freely, which is necessary for proper growth of these babies. We begin with low light in order to get these normally genetically short varieties to stretch to the desired 14-16 inch stem length. Why are genetically short? Because most of the plant's energy goes into making those inside petals POP.

Due to the popularity of Super Fancies and how quickly they flew off our farm last year, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering more varieties like Ice Cream and Queensland--check out Pop-up Purple, Pop-up Yellow, Vaya con Dios, and Basita below. If you happen to get a taste of one of these bunches this year, consider yourself lucky; however, don't fret if you missed the boat--we'll be bringing these visual treats back next year.

Pop-up Purple and Pop-up Yellow

Vaya con Dios and Basita

I'm proud to say that Sun Valley is on the forefront of production for these Super Fancy, Multi-Layered, Mind-Blowing Tulips. Ice Cream, Queensland, and Double Touch will be in production until the end of May, and our hope is to continue to increase this program so that more and more of you can have these remarkable American grown tulips in your lives, so get 'em while they're hot outta the hoop house ! And remember--because these Super Fancy tulips have really only come to market in the last few years, we are all part of forming their current story, but their future narrative is up to you.