TULIPS

 

ENGLISH FLORISTS’ TULIPS

English Florists’ Tulips had their peak of popularity in the early Nineteenth

Century, with many florist's societies growing the tulip and other florist's flowers like the ranunculus, carnation, anemone and the auricula, when standards of what represented a good flower were first laid down. Since then the number of tulip shows has declined, and when the Royal National Tulip Society closed in 1936, our society was the last remaining tulip show in Britain.

 

‘Florists were persons who grew plants for the sake of their decorative flowers rather than for any useful property the flower might have. Later it came to refer to one who grew certain kinds of flowering plants and those to a very high standard, their excellence being tested at competitions held with fellow florists’ (From Florists’ Flowers and Societies by Ruth Duthie).

 

The English Florist Tulip has to conform to certain strict standards, particularly in having a shape like half a hollow ball, and having a base colour cleanly white or yellow, on top of which the darker colour is overlaid.  The attractive markings on some of the flowers exhibited arise from infection with tulip breaking virus of the bulb from which the flower grows.  The markings have been known about since the days of Tulipomania in the Seventeenth Century, when livelihoods were gambled on the values of individual bulbs.  During the 1930’s, Tulip Breaking Virus was discovered to be the cause.  The flowers do not seem to suffer from infection: one of the oldest cultivars known to us is Habit de Noce (Wedding Coat), dating from the 1790's, and still grown by Society members today.

Mabel Breeder

Columbine Flame & Feather

Each variety can exist in three different forms:

Breeder Tulips are flowers unaffected by virus in which the base colour, either white or yellow, forms a base to petals of a solid colour.

Flamed Tulips have been affected by virus so that the petal colour intensifies into a central bar up the petal and flame-like markings around the edge of the petals.  A flower will be marked down if there are "skips" where the colour has missed, or if the markings are too heavy.

Feathered Tulips are less heavily marked and have no central bar, the edge being finely feathered with the body colour.

 

DUTCH TULIPS

After the excesses of Tulipomania, tulip growing in the Low Countries settled down, following a very different path from the pursuit of perfect individual blooms by the English florists.  The tulip now vies with the Hyacinth as the national flower of Holland.  Virus-infected bulbs are now grown only in historic collections, but the tulip is big business as a bulb and as a cut flower for export.

 

The Dutch Tulip is grown for its effect en masse, and many new varieties and sports have been cultivated.  There are many different classes of tulip, extending the season from early March to late May with doubles, parrots and lily flowers.  Breeding this century has created new varieties based on certain species, like the kaufmanniana ("Waterlily") tulips with their short growth and variegated foliage.

 

Unlike English Florist Tulips, which are shown in sets designed to show off the range of the grower's collection, Dutch Tulips are shown in groups, usually with each vase of a single variety.   The best exhibits will be true to their type, healthy and well grown, at their peak of blooming and well matched as a set. Most of the varieties you see today will be available for purchase by mail order this Autumn from bulbgrowers.  Society members may be able to give addresses of suppliers.

 

SPECIES TULIPS

There has been a resurgence of interest in species tulips, going back to the "unimproved" forms of our garden flowers.  Many are suitable for pot cultivation or as rockery plants.