Tulipa 2009

[BULBISSIME]

One of my favourite Tulip !
Mine are also flowering now with nice perfume 

[Sinchets]

The man from the Met Office- he say "Yes"!
Tulipa turkestanica (?), this should be the 'Dzhizak' form from Janis, on the first sunny day in a week.

[Hristo]

Hi there,
Simon has posted the first tulips to flower here in our 'Tulip Bunker', in keeping with interest from other threads I have included a picture of the 'Tulip Bunker'. Steel reinforced concrete sides and a fine metal mesh between the natural ground level and the bed substrate to keep out voles, moles, mice etc! The top can be covered by a removable wooden / PVC sheet coated frame which keeps the rain and snow off.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Verry impressive Hristo !
Seems like this construction can stand even heavy bombardments... 

[Hristo]

LOL, Yes Luc, I suspect in the event of war we will be fighting with the tulips for cover!

[Oron Peri]

Oron in which way differ these T. biflora to T. polychroma?
I have grow them for years in different pots. But recoignized after three years it was the same species. T. polychroma.

I guess it is another way for the bulb companies to sell the same plant twice- give them all different names, or the namesof similar looking species.

Simon, I cant say I disagree about what you have said, but I think that many species have been given names in early days, where botanists didn't have the whole picture of their distribution.
Many species where given a few names by different botanists to create confusion and debates for many years to come....

[Sinchets]

Very true Oron. I was just looking at The Pacific Bulb Society site to check a Scilla was correct, and I see there has been a move to split Scilla into smaller more manageable genera. Shame there is no money in doing this for so many other genera, or even as you say doing chromosomal studies on some of the horticulturally more confusing ones.

[Armin]

Simon,
very attractive this form with nice color of anthers.
Does it usual show only single flowers (biflora type)?

[Sinchets]

Armin
There are other flowers in between the leaves of both bulbs- whether they will be on the same stalk I don't yet know. I've had it 2 years, but lat year was a mess voles had been in the beds and there were bulbs coming up everywhere. It is from Janis, so I am sure he will know more.

[Sinchets]

Armin- the Tulipa turkestanica looks like it will have more than one flower per stalk-  one bulb has the main flower with some aborted flowers further back. The larger bulb has 4 flowers all coming from the stalk below the main flower.
Flowering today Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Sunrise' from Janis.

[BULBISSIME]

Very nice plants, I love your ground !

[Sinchets]

Thanks- it is designed as a mine field for voles- we found that ours don't like digging in stony soil.

[Onion]

Simon
do you now the area where Janis find the T. kaufmanniana 'Sunrise'?
I grew T. kaufmanniana 'Waterlily' a introduction of van Tunbergen. The colour of the flower is a pale yellow.

[Sinchets]

Simon
do you now the area where Janis find the T. kaufmanniana 'Sunrise'?
I grew T. kaufmanniana 'Waterlily' a introduction of van Tunbergen. The colour of the flower is a pale yellow.

Sorry Uli I don't- It says in the catalogue it was selected from wild bulbs and raised by Zinaida Botschantzeva.

[Boyed]

Simon
do you now the area where Janis find the T. kaufmanniana 'Sunrise'?
I grew T. kaufmanniana 'Waterlily' a introduction of van Tunbergen. The colour of the flower is a pale yellow.

I suppose it is selected in Uzbekistan, as Z.P. Botschantzeva lived there and thouroughly studied and investigated the local flora. She introduced in culture a great number of very special wild-selected clones of tulips and bred many many exclusive interspecific hybrids, but unfortunately after the collapse of USSR only few survived to days.

Simon,
take a special care about your t. kaufmanniana 'Sunrise'; it is a valuable wild slected clone and nowdays became very rare and pereserved only by few growers in Latvia nad Lithuania. It is lost even in Uzbekistan and Russia.