Ca of t WILD

Before the tall, blousy flowers we know so well became the accepted form of a ‘tulip’, there were the wild ones that didn’t need lifting and chilling to perform. MICHAEL McCOY shows us around the fascinating world of species tulips

Tulips didn’t always come from cool, damp climates like that of The Netherlands, which we often think of as their ‘home’. In the wild, tulips are at their most diverse in Central Asia, and they radiate from there into surrounding countries that all share hot, dry summers and cool, damp winters and springs.

The story of how tulips entered cultivation, and eventually, if briefly, dominated the economy of The Netherlands, is one of the most rollicking tales of horticultural history, and has been the subject of entire books. But for our purposes, it’s enough to know that the preference of big hybrid tulips for cooler, damper climates is one that has been bred into them for the Northern Hemisphere garden and flower markets, and it doesn’t reflect the plant’s natural preferences.

Nor, in the wild, is anyone lifting and replanting the bulbs annually. Indeed, when tracing tulips back to the wild species, we discover a whole range of breathtakingly beautiful flowers that, in the right climate, require far less care than their highly bred descendants. A cool winter remains a demand for most of these species, but Mat Murray, a senior horticulturist at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah (and serious bulbophile), has grown and flowered many of the species featured in these pages on the New South Wales Central Coast.

In really acidic soils, species tulips are said to appreciate some lime, but I’ve never done anything to ameliorate my rather acid conditions. They are best in full sun, in soil with excellent drainage, into which you plant them, then leave them alone. Let’s take a look at a few that could grace your garden.