One of the most dazzling garden ornaments, tulips are essential among spring flowers. Cultivated in colorful mixtures, they form flowerbeds, flowerbeds, and planters of great beauty; Arranged by variety, they allow harmonizations with highlights accentuated by the regularity of the plantings.
To best enhance the color effects, it is advisable to only cultivate varieties of the same genus together or at least species of the same precocity.
With nearly 150 species having given rise to more than 3000 varieties, the choice of tulips is immense. All coming from the same genus, the Tulipa genus, tulips are divided into two main categories:
The botanical tulip
The botanical tulip, close to the wild tulip, is rustic, authentic and easy to grow. Perennial, it settles permanently in the garden and reflowers from one year to the next while multiplying without any other need than well-drained soil. It has among its ranks remarkable varieties which lend themselves admirably to our temperate climates:
- The Kaufmann tulip has large petals reminiscent of those of the water lily. It is an early flower that blooms at the end of winter and comes in many bright colors, sometimes plain, variegated. Short in size, it is ideal for beautifully brightening up lawns at the end of winter.
- The clusiana tulip, or Persian tulip, is an adorable, exquisite little red and white tulip that opens and closes its petals every day throughout its flowering period from April to May. Very robust, it is undemanding but prefers drained soil.
- The bakeri Lilac Wonder tulip, is one of the most robust and easy to grow botanical tulips. It flowers in April, opening adorable cupped flowers with lilac petals joined by a large yellow heart. Fresh and a little old-fashioned in appearance, this pleasant tulip becomes more beautiful as it widens from year to year.
The domestic tulip
The domestic tulip, garden tulip, or Gesner tulip is the tulip which, resulting from complex hybridization work, is found in a multitude of surprising and original varieties and cultivars. Early, single or double, semi-early single, late single or double, the Gesner tulip, depending on its varieties, flowers generously from the beginning of spring until the month of May and, its skillfully organized plantings, allow you to benefit from the enchantment of a succession of carpets of flowers lasting for many weeks.
Among the earliest, the fosteriana tulip, with simple and elongated flowers, constitutes an ideal start for this floral ballet that simple early ones such as the Apricot Beauty or the coppery and purple Princess Irène, both carrying subtle perfumes, can lead until the end of April. The embarrassment of choice among early, semi-early and late doubles allows the gardener to give free rein to his creativity in the implementation of his multicolored plant paintings. The parrot tulips, with their latest flowering, will end in an explosion of colors carried by the convoluted shapes of its eccentric and baroque petals, this sumptuous moving and ephemeral painting.
Excellent vase hold, tulips, alone or combined with seasonal flowers, daffodils, ranunculus , anemones or even irises, also allow the creation of admirable bouquets that vary endlessly but always with freshness and springtime cheerfulness.
