[Fermi]

Tulipa whitallii is flowering "well" - 6 blooms! It has "run" a lot in the last couple of years, even venturing into the path!
cheers
fermi

[Charithea]

VERY nice!

[Umbrian]

Very pretty little Tulip Fermi, I love it when plants "run" as you so aptly put it, they look so
much more natural - a look I strive to achieve in my garden although some things have to be curbed from taking over.....

[Hilary]

Tulipa Exotic Emperor

Yet another tulip seen in the Royal Botanic Garden, Madrid, April 2018.

Apparently this is a fosteriana tulip and what is more they are mentioned in
 THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 20, April 2000 in
A RABBINICAL GARDEN: PART2
By Nicholas Stavroulakis

Look at all the other posts on this thread, some of the photos are stunning

[Hilary]

Tulipa purissima

One of the tulips on display in the Royal Botanic Garden Madrid in April 2018

Apparently, this is a Fosteriana Tulip

Tulipa fosteriana is  mentioned in a book review in THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 80, April; 2015
FLORA OF THE SILK ROAD by Christopher and Basak Gardner
The review is written by Caroline Harbouri

[Hilary]

Tulipa turkestanica

Another tulip seen in the Royal Botanic Garden Madrid
In April 2018

This tulip, as you imagine, is native to central Asia

There are many references to tulips both wild and cultivated in
 THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN

Today I recommend that you read GARDENER’S QUESTION TIME.
 by June Grindley
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN Number 72,  April 2013

[Charithea]

Hilary, have you tried growing tulips in pots? I have had not success as yet. I decided to leave them for people who have more patience and take better care of them.

[Hilary]

I was given some tulip  bulbs a few years ago and one or two flowers appeared but the weather was too hot for them and they soon spoilt.
I used to pass through Amsterdam Airport   on my way to Newcastle. Several times I admired these wooden tulips and eventually decided to buy some.
Both my granddaughters had expressed, at different times, a wish to have a wooden tulip but I hardened my heart as we all know flowers have to be in odd numbers in a vase.
These decorate our bathroom in the spring

[Alisdair]

Charithea, Helena grows quite a lot in biggish terracotta pots. She puts 10 in ones with a top internal diameter of 25cm, and 20 in the bigger (about 33 cm) ones. She plants them in layers at varying depths. She buys her bulbs as collections of 20 or so from Sarah Raven, who lives just up the lane from us, waiting till her sale price comes down as the selling season ends (discounts of up to 60% eventually). She grows them in these pots just for the first year. After it we plant them out in the open ground.

[Charithea]

Thank you Alisdair.  I have tried many times but obviously not the correct way. My sister brought me some from Holland and I managed to raise a black one, my neighbour/gardening friend gave me lots of bulbs last year. Her younger son brought 'fresh' bulbs from Holland. Nothing again and the ones in the ground produce only leaves. We have managed the last two years to grow some alliums but nothing spectacular. I have been blaming it on the climate but it just that I am not good at it.  Of course we have the beautiful Tulipa agenensis which do well higher up the hilly villages and Tulipa cypria which grow in the Northen part of Cyprus.  Neither available to buy.

[Umbrian]

I am probably out on a limb here but I really do not find modern tulips very attractive and some of the recent introductions are, to my eye, positively hideous........they seem to have attracted attention for a long time for some reason with people going bankrupt over their passion to acquire coveted bulbs in the past. Such a far cry from the beauty of many of the species.....growing wild in places that enhance them.

[John J]

If you are out on a limb, Carole, then I'm out there with you. I've never found cultivated tulips to be very popular with the local population so they are not readily available for one thing. The ones that are on sale usually originate in Holland and so seem to have no affinity with the conditions they meet here. Tulips may have originated in this part of the world but the wild ones are a far cry from the pampered Prima donnas of the cultivated variety.

[Umbrian]

I really find all the hybridising of species plants to be getting too much now. I am sure some plantsmen find it very satisfying but so often the bottom line is purely financial with one upmanship amongst gardeners ensuring a steady uptake of increasingly artificial looking plants. Hellebores spring to mind and the other day I saw a photograph of a fussy, frilly Pasque flower that bore no resemblance to the delicate beauty of the original..... in fact until reading the caption I had  no idea what it was.

[Hilary]

Tulipa ‘Red Georgette’

A red tulip seen in the Royal Botanic Garden Madrid in April 2018

As you would expect there are many references to tulips in
 THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN

I was lucky enough to find an article, which I had not recommended before, mentioning tulips
ART AND NATURE:
SPRINGTIME IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
By Flavio Zanon issue number 16, Spring 1999

There is some information about this tulip on the website of the RHS
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/76832/Tulipa-Red-Georgette-(5)/Details

[Hilary]

Tulipa ‘Princess Irene’

Another tulip seen in the Royal Botanic Garden Madrid  in April 2018.

This tulip must open later than the others and look at how tightly packed they are in the pot

Tulips are mentioned by Olivier Filippi
In HOW PLANTS COPE WITH DRYNESS:
MECHANISMS OF ADAPTATION

THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN  number 48, April 2007