Web-Only Tulips

Named for a fiery French statesman, this “handsome flower” is “bright chestnut-bronze with golden-bronze margin and bronze-black center,” to quote the 1931 catalog of London’s Barr and Sons. It’s also one of the rarest tulips we’re offering this year – the Hortus has promised us just 25 bulbs – so if you want it, don’t delay! Dutch Breeder/Single Late, 24-28”, zones 4a-7b(8aWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

A deep, smoldering ruby that’s so dark it’s just not right to call it red, ‘Koh-I-Noor’ brings a touch of midnight and mystery to the spring garden. Even its shape is unusual – spade-like petals opening into an angular crown. It’s named for one of history’s largest and most celebrated diamonds, the 700-year-old “Mountain of Light,” now part of England’s Crown Jewels. 10-12”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

A very rare survivor from the days of Tulipomania in the 1630s, this crown-shaped tulip of burgundy and ivory was once sold for enormous sums. Today it may still seem expensive – but what else can you own from 1620 that costs so little? And with good care, it multiplies! Pronounced “Lock von Rhine,” Single Early, 14”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

With bold flames and feathers of cherry-red on white, this striking English florists’ tulip was bred by a Lancashire weaver over 150 years ago. But who was Mabel? Wife? Daughter? Or maybe a favorite barmaid at one of the pubs where the tulip societies held their shows back then? True broken tulip, multiplies well, late blooming, 18”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

This uniquely colored, brown-inflected tulip has “a real ‘old-timey’ look to its garnet and primrose flowers,” as J. Horace McFarland wrote in 1938. Its shape is wonderfully old-fashioned, too, with lancet-pointed petals that curl back gracefully as they open in the sun. One of the so-called Cottage tulips, it was re-discovered by the Rev. Joseph Jacobs “in an old garden in Hanmer in 1905.” Cottage/Single Late, 18-22”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. See our other brown tulips. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

“Dark polished mahogany,” is how Peter Henderson described this tall, late tulip in 1929, but it always reminds us of dark sweet cherries. Despite its dramatic looks, ‘Philippe’ had vanished from American gardens until we reintroduced it in 1998. The great ‘Black Parrot’ is its ruffled sport (mutation). Single Late/Darwin, 20-24”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Holland. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

Tall and shimmering, this exceedingly rare Dutch Breeder has petals of the softest lavender brightening at the edges to silver and pearl. Once part of the enormous collection of Vincent van der Vinne whose family had been growing tulips since the 1730s, it’s named for the beloved husband of Queen Victoria. Dutch Breeder/Single Late, 22-24”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

This is the tulip that launched Old House Gardens way back in 1993. When the last US catalog dropped it, I knew I had to do something. It was just too wonderful to let go extinct. It’s one of history’s most fragrant tulips (violets? orange blossoms?), with a scent that will draw you across the garden on a sunny day. It’s also so vigorous that it’s been returning for well over a decade here with no special care. Scarlet maturing to almost-orange, Single Early, 12”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), grown exclusively for us in Holland. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

In 1995 this elegant beauty was featured in a Garden Design article about a tiny new source devoted to heirloom bulbs, and suddenly we weren’t so tiny anymore. Well-described in the 1931 Scheepers catalog as “rose-pink with topaz lights and hints of fuchsia shadowing,” it was lost to us in 2002 when the last Dutch farmer quit growing it, but thanks to the Hortus we’re once again able to offer it to you. Single Late/Darwin, 18-22”, zones 4a-7b(8bWC). Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.

Weird name, cool flower. With “much rich beauty to commend it” (in the words of the 1929 Scheepers catalog), this true broken tulip is a swirling tapestry of “all shades of deep lilac and dark reddish rose” feathered and flamed on creamy yellow and white. “The whole is rich and strange” – and glorious! Single Late, 20-24”, late-blooming, zones 4a-7b(8bWC), from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart and care. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, sign up for an email alert.