Rare beauties of the tulip world
With their painterly petals inspiring Old Masters, the exquisite and rare heritage tulips at Bayntun Flowers are a treasured harvest
THERE IS A quiet sense of timelessness at Blacklands; a 100-acre, old country estate in West Wiltshire. Here, Polly Nicholson gently nurtures more than 70 different heritage tulip cultivars, some of which date back to the mid 17th century. They chime well within their elegant, historic parkland setting.
Looking like beautiful feathered birds, a few of the tulips sit, gracefully poised, in worn stone or tarnished zinc pots by the house. “They work well in weathered containers, which complement their own age and colouring,” says Polly, who has also woven them in the garden with winter ferns, wallflowers and forget-me-nots. Some ruffle the verges of the drive beyond; a successful experiment to see how they might look when grown through grass, and which has now extended to incorporate a blend of choice historic tulips, intermingled with select modern cultivars.
The principal collection, however, lies beyond the house; up the leafy country lane to a dedicated flower field on the boundary of the estate. Here, set apart from other flowers also grown for bespoke floristry, is a swathe of more than 1,000 individual historic tulips, planted together in a glorious blend of colour. They do not shout out in the way of more modern cultivars. Instead, these precious tulips, the latest of their genus to flower in late April to early May, bloom decoratively, but demurely. They are subtle and refined.
Polly describes them as the quieter, calmer version of those we cultivate today. “They are smaller-sized, with muddier colours than their contemporary counterparts,” she says. “I love the way they all bleed and blend into each other.” This effect is beautifully illustrated by her deliberate tonal planting. Her collection is portrayed as a seamless wave of muted colour, with one tone rolling into the next. “I grow historic tulips as a farmer, but I want to use them as a florist, so, even in planting, I can’t help aiming for aesthetics,” she explains.
Each individual tulip is like a work of art. The plain types, referred to as ‘breeders’, have unique quality and tone. They range from the complex fusion of a single colour, as in the deep mahogany and aubergine of ‘James Wild’, to the antique rose and rich salmon of ‘Rose des Dames’. “I can see and understand why they were once singled out for breeding,” says Polly. “Their unique strength and vitality of colour is lacking in modern bulbs. I particularly love the depth and rich polish of the reddish-brown ‘James Wild’.”
However, it is the ‘broken’ tulips that are the more prized; simply because they cannot be deliberately created. These are rare, bewitching tulips, which have unpredictably broken from single, jewel-coloured flowers into what is often an exciting amalgam of colour, inscribed with patterns resembling flickering flames or unfurling feathers. They became the absolute symbol
“Two shapely leaves will first unfold, Then, on a smooth elastic stem, The verdant bud shall turn to gold, And open in a diadem”
James Montgomery, ‘On Planting a Tulip-Root’
of wealth among mid century Dutch merchants. As tulip fever raged in Holland from 1634-1637, these precious bulbs commanded exorbitant prices. According to Anna Pavord, author of The Tulip, “single bulbs of certain kinds of tulips could change hands for sums that would have secured a town house in the best quarter of Amsterdam”.
This precarious market crashed in 1637. Weak and virused, the bulbs could no longer be sustained in viable quantities. Their novelty waned as the May-flowering tulips were replaced by the first summer flowers. Tulipomania, as it was known, was over, but these curious tulips prevailed, exchanged and hybridised by specialist breeders, who were fascinated by their beauty and the capricious, seemingly random, nature of ‘breaks’. In the 1920s, it was discovered that a virus, transmitted by aphids, was responsible for their feathered transformation.
A few of the more stable, historic broken cultivars grace Polly’s collection: ‘Absalon,’ which is rich mahogany inlaid with gold; ‘Columbine’; a ruby and amethyst-spangled diamond-white cultivar, and ‘Insulinde’; robed in regal purple, edged with ermine and gold. But for Polly, like the Dutch merchants, their allure is not knowing if or how they will break.
Pretty as a picture
Initially, Polly was drawn to historic printed or painted versions of these extraordinary tulips. Working as an antiquarian book specialist, such images frequently crossed her path, and her passion for Renaissance paintings increased her exposure to their charm and diversity. For those who could not afford the high prices sought during Tulipomania, one way in which they could still enjoy these flowers was to commission an artist to paint some. Polly admired their beauty in the artworks of Dutch Old Masters, such as Brueghel, Bosschaert and Rachel Ruysch, unaware of their remarkable survival. Now she proudly grows many of the flowers depicted in those paintings.
The opportunity to do so arose when Polly, her husband, Ed, and their young family moved from the city to Wiltshire in 2008. They renovated the Georgian house and, driven by a lack of flowers to fill it with, Polly began to cultivate seasonal flowers for cutting. She filled the walled garden’s flower beds with a selection of annuals, perennials and bulbs. Before long, flowers spilled into their own dedicated flower field. The home-grown flower business, Bayntun Flowers, grew from surplus blooms. “It quickly became clear to me that, to thrive, I needed to differentiate and grow something really special,” says Polly. “I realised it was the perfect moment to cultivate those rare, historic tulips I’d long admired on canvas or paper.”
The most obvious source for historic Dutch bulbs was Holland. “I discovered an extensive living library of more than 4,000 historic bulbs, including heritage tulips, planted in the gardens of the Hortus Bulborum Foundation in Limmen, outside Amsterdam,” she says. In the late spring of 2016, Polly travelled with her head gardener, Hannah Gardner, to see the flowering bulbs first-hand; hoping to select and purchase her first historic tulips. Unfortunately, due to unseasonably cold weather, not a single old specimen tulip was actually in flower, nor was she able to select freely from specimens illustrated in the printed catalogue. “Bulbs were to be issued randomly; a maximum of three per order; each commanding a huge price,” she says. Polly returned empty-handed.
“My first bulbs came from a more keenly-priced specialist Dutch bulb supplier, Jacques Amand, which currently catalogues approximately 70 different historic cultivars; the bulbs selling out almost immediately.” Polly found additional selections, equally fleeting, from a few catalogue suppliers. She initially gathered up a dozen cultivars, including breeder ‘Fairy
Nymph’ and brokens ‘Insulinde’, ‘The Lizard’ and ‘Absalon’, which is one of Polly’s favourites. “I love the richness of its unusual burnished browns and bronzes,” she says.
The first historic tulip bulb Polly planted was ‘Insulinde’. “This is a prettily-painted, broken tulip, with violet and purple feathers flung over thick, creamy petals; so different to modern cultivars,” she says. “It’s one of my best historic cut flowers because it reproduces relatively reliably, allowing me to grow it in sufficient quantity for sale, without depleting my stock.”
But Polly’s oldest and, perhaps, rarest tulip, is the ancient ‘Lac van Rijn’, which was introduced in 1620 and predates Tulipomania. Small and dainty, it is set apart from the rest of historic Dutch tulips by its decidedly pointed petals, which are coloured burgundy and edged in white, with a yellow base. “I also grow ‘Alba Regalis’, dating from 1670, which is similar in age and form, but pure white,” says Polly.
Dutch-style historic tulips are sometimes called Rembrandt tulips, although the Old Master himself rarely painted them. The name is a reference to the city of Leiden, which was not only the birthplace of Rembrandt, but also where tulip growing in Holland began. “Rembrandt tulips are characterised by lesser, but still ever-so-slightly pointy petals,” explains Polly. This feature helps to distinguish them from the historic English florists’ tulips, which she also grows.
Amateur enthusiasts
English ‘florists’, not to be confused with today’s florists and flower arranging, were passionate amateur growers and largely working men, including shoemakers, shop owners and miners of
the late 18th century. Their tulips were honed, grown and shown, and selectively bred to attain specific key characteristics. They are quite distinct from their Dutch ancestors. The early Florist Society laid down exacting standards of form, purity and colour, against which all florists’ tulips were judged. These tulips have almost flat, rounded, unpointed petals. “The perfect shape is a shallow half-cup,” explains Polly. They are similarly subdivided into breeder and broken types, but unlike the kaleidoscope of Dutch Rembrandts, their flowers must conform to one of three strict colour combinations. These are ‘bizarre’, which has brown, red or purple markings on a yellow ground, as in ‘Old Times’; ‘byblomen’, which has violet or purple markings on a white ground, as in ‘Talisman’; and ‘rose’, which has rose-pink or cerise markings on a white ground, such as ‘Columbine’ and ‘Mabel’.
New breaks are not encouraged. Instead, English florists strive to preserve the purity of these horticultural idols, without deviation. Today, there is only one remaining florists’ society in existence: the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society, founded in 1836, which promotes the growing and showing of English florists’ tulips, preserves the old varieties and grows and shows other tulip varieties and species. “The members are real experts in their field, with supreme knowledge,” explains Polly, who joined the venerable society in 2018. “The bulbs are literally priceless; rarer and scarcer than historic Dutch bulbs, and they cannot be bought.” Members only receive or exchange mere handfuls of bulbs annually, as they are too precious to spread beyond their inner circle.
English florists’ tulips are grown in the open, under hessian or hemp covers, which protect them from rain, hail, frost or sun damage, which might mar their perfection. “They have been bred for beauty and are not particularly hardy,” says Polly.
Following expert advice from senior florists, Polly has raised bulbs from her initial allocation of broken and breeder bulbs, which crucially arrived individually wrapped in separate parcels. The society’s annual show is held in the first or second week of May. “The timing is spot on for the northern growers, but in warmer Wiltshire, mine are almost going over by then,” explains Polly. Despite this, she scooped a first place for her vase of 12 English florists’ blooms and second for her breeder tulip ‘James Wild’ when she showed for the first time last year. Individual blooms are shown in brown glass beer bottles; a tradition
dating back to the original florists who met and showed their tulips at local pubs, where the bottles were readily available, cheap and empty. They also show off the blooms beautifully.
Curiosities of cultivation
Polly grows all her historic tulips in open fields. “It’s good for their vigour: free air circulation keeps them healthier,” she says. The climate is cool, wet and windy, but the tulips seem to thrive in the rich, alluvial topsoil at the foot of the Marlborough Downs. “I incorporate 5cm of sharp horticultural sand on planting to improve drainage,” she explains. The flower farm is managed organically, and Polly is working to secure certification with the Soil Association.
Planted or lifted, breeders and brokens are strictly segregated in order to keep them clean of virus-threatening aphids. In turn, Dutch tulips are kept separate from the English florists’ tulips to avoid cross-contamination. All are meticulously labelled and monitored. All tulips are susceptible to botrytis, mildew and tulip fire. “This can wipe out an entire collection in one go,” warns Polly. “Bulbs are therefore planted in fresh ground each year, and anything vaguely suspicious is immediately burned.”
Dutch bulbs, for floristry, are placed 4-6in (10-15cm) apart to encourage tall, straight cutting stems. The more precious English florists’ bulbs, whose flowers are not for sale, are given more space, planted at 8in (20cm) intervals.
All the bulbs are lifted in June, with fastidious segregation maintained, and are hand-cleaned, dried and stored outdoors in aerated crates. “New bulbils are removed and replanted in recycled aquatic plant baskets, and plunged into ‘nursery beds’ in the walled garden until they are large enough to move up to the field,” says Polly. New bulbils are exciting, as they may contain a random break. “When my ‘Fairy Nymph’ breeder broke, it conjured within all the excitement of Tulipomania.” Polly hopes to deliberately encourage and breed in this chance phenomenon in the future.
Her collection continues to grow in breadth and depth. “There are more than 50 historic Dutch cultivars: 200 each of ‘Insulinde’ and ‘Silver Standard’, which most reliably produce multiple new bulbils,” she says. “These are the best for cut flowers, simply because they bulk up more readily.
“My English florists’ tulips are infinitely more precious. I have approximately 20 cultivars; literally only three or four bulbs of each, which are strictly not for sale. They’re fickle and notoriously slow to increase, so you definitely have to be in this for the long game.”
It is the dedication and commitment of generations of breeders which ensure these historic jewels are still available to this day. “I’m delighted to be capturing and cultivating some of the finest specimens of horticultural history,” says Polly.