[oron peri]

Tulipa agenesis in the N. Mediterranean coast of Israel is at its best at the moment.
This Spring is prommising as we have good rain seoson.
Photos were taken this afternoon. 

[Alisdair]

Absolutely gorgeous, Oron - so different from the scruffy specimens we saw with you a couple of years ago, in dry conditions about three weeks later!

[Marilyn]

Spectacular! What a colour!

[Trevor Australis]

So-o-o-o  LUCKY Oron to have such beauty virtually on your doorstep. Thank you for sharing the beauty. What protection, if any, do plant populations such as this have? Are the colonies of bulbs widespread or located in very few sites? This is leading to a question: are seeds available from any one, or institutions such as botanic gardens.  Many years ago my mother-in-law brought me some seeds she said she'd collected on the plateau above Petra nr the hotel she was staying in. The seeds grew and eventually flowered revealing themselves to be beautiful scarlet tulips with a yellow basal patch. Altho' I have several books about tulip sp - Hall, Botschaneva and Dykes? I haven't been able to come up with any reliable ID.  tn

[oron peri]

Thanks Trevor,
The Tulip from Petra is Tulipa systola which is a desert species very similar to T. agenensis, it is distributed in the deserts of Israel, Palestine, syria, Jordan and all the way to Iran.
Tulipa agenensis is very common here and as all bulbuos plants in Israel it is highly protected by low.
It is even forbiden to collect seeds without a special permition.
Saying that... ask Marcus H., i think i have sent him seeds a couple of years ago.
I know there is a book on Tulip species which is due to be published in the near future in the UK.

[JTh]

Wonderful to see these nice flowers again, Oron, thank you.

I wonder if the the tulip in the photo I have from the trip to Israel two years ago is correctly named, I thought it was T. agenensis, but the leaves are much more wavy/curlier than those you have shown us here.

[oron peri]

Jorun, it is named correctly.
Tulipa agenensis that grow in semidesert conditions and dry coastl areas often have undulate leaves,
like many other bulbuose plants growing in these conditions it serves reducing evaporation by minimizing the leaf surface exposed to the sun. It creats some shade as well on the leaf it self in the same way some desert beatles do.

[Trevor Australis]

Thanks Oron. I know Marcus Harvey quite well and will ask him about the tulip bulbs. These plants offer all Med gardeners such a fantastic resource. tn

[JTh]

Thank you, Oron. I did not think all the tulips we saw in the desert two years ago were scruffy, but they were certainly not as abundant as those in your photos here.

[Daisy]

I grow a few species tulips in my garden, but I have a soft spot for the big and blowsy Darwin and other tulips.
My husband,  (who is the cook in our house) complains, because when the bulbs arrive, they live in the vegetable drawer in the fridge for about 10 weeks before I plant them, to give them a chill period.
I use them in pots and they give a brilliant display for weeks.
I took these photos in February.









These were taken in early March.


march 2013 020 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr


march 2013 022 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr


march 2013 023 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr


march 2013 024 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr

This one I took this morning. Darwin tulips are beautiful even when blown and bashed by strong winds.


march 2013 016 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr

Daisy

[Trevor Australis]

  Lovely pics Daisy. Do you throw the bulbs away after they have flowered or do you try to fatten them up for the following year. Have you tried some of the multi-stemmed tulip hybrids which seem to fall somewhere between the species and the big Dutch hybrids?

We manage to keep some of the big 'Dutchies' going for years by burying the bulbs quite deeply. It seems they like this. I wonder if the more constant cool temps 12cm down is what does the trick?  tn

[Daisy]

Last year was the first time I had some Darwin Tulips.
I only had a few of one variety, but didn't try to keep them.
This year I have a few more and will probably try to keep them.
Even if I am unsuccessful, they are cheap and cheerful flowers to use simply as bedding.
Daisy

[John]

Normally I would suggest that you don't bother keeping bedding tulips for another season as they often split down to several none flowering bulbs unless fed very well. I have however had experience of Darwin types growing and flowering for many years left undisturbed in a London garden. As suggested I would agree to plant them deep especially in a mediterranean climate.

[John]

Hi, yes they do look totally different to the ones we saw on our visit, so lush.
In the western Algarve Rosie took us to a friends garden where in a wild area there was a lovely stand of Tulipa sylvestris. All of those we saw had a bronzing to the back of the flower to some degree. They were much more lush than those we saw in Montenegro last year and drooping probably as a response to the constant downpours.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Seen growing yesterday on Mt Hymettos in just one place but well spread.