Specialist tulips

These little gems of the garden are delicate in comparison to larger bolder border tulips. Single-flowered, they are wild species, or closely related to them. Because of this, they tend to have an informal naturalistic appearance.

Most need free-draining soil in spring, with a dry summers rest. Grow them as greenhouse specimen plants in pots of gritty compost, or outdoors in gravel, rock gardens and alpine troughs. They prefer a sunny position, although a few tolerate shade.

The bulbs may rot in heavy or badly drained soil that stays wet in summer. In shade the flowers will not open fully.

Wild species, Tulipa sylvestris grows in shady damp places, spreading by stolons (underground stems) rather than forming bulbs around the parent plant.