Introducing...

Specialist tulips

Botanical name: Tulipa species and cultivars

Common name: Tulip

These tulips are generally smaller in scale and more delicate in appearance than border tulips. They benefit from tailoring growing conditions to suit their needs. If happy, they will often multiply in number.

Looks

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.

Likes

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.

Dislikes

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

Did you know?

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

Growing guide

How to grow tulips

All the information you'll need to grow & care for tulips in your garden.

How to grow tulips