Tulipa 2010

[TheOnionMan]

After the mildest and earliest spring season over the past 10 years, cold has returned with a vengeance, some freezing rain last night and bitterly cold today although slightly above freezing.  Tonight, it is supposed to be a deep freeze, to 18 F (-9 C).  I photographed some of the emerging Tulipa kaufmanniana cultivars and other Tulipa today, and wonder how they'll do.  Here's a photo of T. kaufmanniana 'Stressa', the cupped sheathing leaves serving as a water vessel... will the water freezing and expanding damage the buds and foliage tissue?

[TheOnionMan]

Following up on the previous photo, the weathermen accurately predicted the sudden deep freeze overnight, it was 18 degrees F (-9 C) this morning, and everything is frozen solid.  Here's the same water-pooling T. kaufmanniana 'Stressa' stressed by being frozen.  The leaves and flowers on crocus and other plants are hard and brittle this morning, we'll see how they recover when it warms up.  This is the problem when getting a precocious spring where everything is leafing out and budding up too early, at greater risk at getting "zapped" by a hard freeze.

The second photo shows what this group of tulips look like in flower, in April:
Left to right:  'Stressa', 'Heart's Delight', 'Johann Strauss', Tulipa polychroma behind on the left.  Cultivar names as purchased, but not verified.

[Onion]

Mark,
very nice your T. kaufmanniana group. A warm spot in the sun.
Your T. polychroma is a superb form of this species. Is this a wild collected form. My forms have only little flowers. Enough for me, because I like this kind of tulip flowers.

[Boyed]

re: Tulipa acuminata

Is this Tulipa usually viral?  After years of searching I got a dozen from a very reputable nurseryman last year.  I realize some of these bizarre ones are  bizarre due to virus however these are blatantly viral with streaked leaves and some twisted leaves, not just beautifully streaked flowers as one expects.  Can it live with the virus and if normal has it done so for all these years since its introduction?

johnw

John,
pity to hear that tulipa acuminata tourned out to be virus infected. It can live with virus for years, but from year to year it gets weakened, gradually degradating. Besides it can serve as a reservoir for spreading of infection. I strongly recommend to distroy your stock and trash it.
This tulip isn't bizarre due to virus infection. Some of my collegues grow healthy stock of it. I don't think that it is a hard-to-find tulip. It is widely available by reasonable prises. In CIS countries it is also a very easily available. I hope this year you'll have the opportunity to obtain healthy stock.

[Boyed]

In the glasshouses of Keukenhof (Lisse) I saw this funny tulip:

Tulipa Darw. Hybr. Gr. Leo

Luit,
The sport of DHT 'Oxford' 'Leo' is really interesting and curious by its unusual and funny shape. Thanks a lot for showing it and advancing our knowledge in tulips. There is another tulip called 'Gnome's Cup' - sport from DHT 'Apeldoorn' selected by Latvian grower Evalds Paupers, having similar shape.I grow it for several years. Can't say it is very beautiful, but no doubt - interesting. Worthy to grow to show diversity.

[Boyed]

Mark, I would not buy it myself.
For me the Triumph tulips have the flower form I like most in tulips.
here is a newer one:

Tulipa  Triumph Gr. Red Bull                          

and a few Darwin Hybr.:
                          
Tulipa Darw. Hybr. Gr. Cosmopolitan 1                          
                    
Tulipa Darw. Hybr. Gr. Candy Apple Delight 1      

Luit,
Great thank for showing us this wonderful tulips. You are a smart photographer; I strongly appriciate when peoaple show the flowers in their close and open conditions, which allows to make a full idea about the way the cultivars look. I am especially impressed by DHT tulips, which seriously differ by colour from old assortment. Actually those tulips introduced by Dutch company Maveridge B.V. are considerably special.
http://www.maveridge.com/pg-1996-7-26546/pagina/home.html

The company is also a representative of famous French scientific and breeding institude INRA in Holland, registering and growing their tulips. As far as I know DHT 'Candy Apple Delight' is a hybrid of a single early tulip with fosteriana tulip. In the website  Maveridge B.V. there are a number of such tulips (among them are some colour breaks) illustrated under EARLY HYBRIDS (the list also includes 'Candy Apple Delight' and 'Cosmopolitan').

By the way, I wanted to mention that TT 'Red Bull' in the second photo is infected with self-break (initial stage of diseas development). If you attentively look at the photo you will notice the rare darker tripes on the main background of petals.

[johnw]

John,
pity to hear that tulipa acuminata tourned out to be virus infected. It can live with virus for years, but from year to year it gets weakened, gradually degradating. Besides it can serve as a reservoir for spreading of infection. I strongly recommend to distroy your stock and trash it.
This tulip isn't bizarre due to virus infection. Some of my collegues grow healthy stock of it. I don't think that it is a hard-to-find tulip. It is widely available by reasonable prises. In CIS countries it is also a very easily available. I hope this year you'll have the opportunity to obtain healthy stock.
[/quote]

Zhirair - Is this virus specific to Tulipa?

johnw

[Boyed]

Zhirair - Is this virus specific to Tulipa?

johnw
[/quote]

John,
it is specific to tulipa and many plants from Liliaceae. But it doesn't infect, for example, plants from ammarilidaceae, as daffodils, hyppeastrum, etc. Their virus is caused by different pathogen.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark,
very nice your T. kaufmanniana group. A warm spot in the sun.
Your T. polychroma is a superb form of this species. Is this a wild collected form. My forms have only little flowers. Enough for me, because I like this kind of tulip flowers.

My T. polychroma is the regular form available in fall bulb bins at local nurseries, but so far as species Tulipa go, it is one of the finest and does well here.  The flowers are richly fragrant.

The freeze:  it warmed up to 40 F (4 C), and all the tulipa and other bulbs hardly seemed to have noticed the deep frreze overnight.

Buds:  Tulipa bifloriformis and polychroma are budding, I like to show plants when doing other things than just flowering.  The buds on T. bifloriformis are interesting, as they coil and snake along, eventually turning upright.  Photo 4 shows a branched flower stem. Photo 5 taken this morning when frozen solid, with Crocus malyi 'Sveti Roc' in back.

[Hans A.]

Superb tulips everybody!

Here some tulips - first two pictures show a "T.saxatilis" tradeform - wondering it gets so many flowers per stalk.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Looking very "Springlike" Hans !! 

[TheOnionMan]

Hans, your T. cretica is a charmer!

Just thought I'd let you Tulipa fans know of a posting I made about high-fire clay pots, which just so happens to be planted with a select form of Tulipa vvedenskyi, worth growing for the foliage alone, although the flower are red hot too.

Take a look here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2645.msg145533#msg145533

I hope that Janis will show us some of his T. vvedenskyi hybrids when they flower this year.

[Ragged Robin]

Superb tulips everybody!

And yours are super too Hans - I just love those tulip faces opening flat out in your garden 

[Janis Ruksans]

Superb tulips everybody!

And yours are super too Hans - I just love those tulip faces opening flat out in your garden 

My T. cretica maid leaves in autumn and... lost them due frost in winter
But first tulips started blooming here, too. As the first allways are species from mysterious Tulipa bifloriformis/turkestanica complex. Follows Tulipa hissarica (not pictured today).
On pictures Tulipa turkestanica from Nuratau ridge near Timurlan gate.
On other something mysterious Tulip. It was collected at Oudzhasai, not far from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.  I have at present only 3 bulbs only now noted that one of them has unusually wide leaves and flowers sitting in rosette. Other two has leaves more tipical to this complex and flowers will develop in typical style - on stem. Checking pictures from previous years I found that this one plant allways had so wide leaves.
Janis

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I hope that Janis will show us some of his T. vvedenskyi hybrids when they flower this year.

I grow some of Janis's hybrids Mc Mark - they're very good doers multiplying well !! 
Weather permitting I should have some ready for pix in a couple of days.