LambLey Nursery

Tulips Tulips
Each year Criss and I plant several thousand Dutch tulip bulbs. But these
horticultural triumphs, the result of centuries of assiduous breeding in the bulb
fields of Holland, are not the only tulips that grow in the garden here at Lambley.
Wild tulips, native to the Central Asian steppes, the hills of Crete, the olive groves
of France, the ranges of Kurdistan, the Taurus Mountains, the Hindu Kush, even
north Africa, and all the wild places between, have made themselves at home
here. Some species have settled into the dry garden and others have naturalised
in rough grass. No matter where we grow them they are amongst the most
admired and coveted plants in the garden.
All the species listed below need much the same conditions in the garden. They
prefer cool winters and hot dry summers and won‟t do at all in subtropical
climates . At Lambley we plant the bulbs under perennials which are either low
growing or cut back to the ground during winter as tulips make their foliage growth
during winter and flower during the first half of spring. I personally think that the
wild tulips do better if the soil they are growing in is covered by other plants during
the heat of summer. We leave all the wild tulips in the garden and lift them only
when they become congested which is about every ten years or so. Some groups
of bulbs have been in the same spot for fifteen years. Our soil is naturally very
acid, Ph 4.5 to 5, so we add dolomite lime or ground limestone every so often.
Tulipa eichleri
This tulip, from north west Iran and
adjacent countries, is one of the
largest flowered and showiest of
all the wildlings. Anna Pavord
writes in her book „The Tulip‟ that
it has “enormous, showy
flowers ....... a clear bright crimson
-scarlet with a brilliant sheen on
the inner surface of the petals.” A
black basal blotch is margined
with yellow. This evolutionary
wonder is held on 30cm tall stems.
Lambley recently imported this
species from Holland. 30cm x
10cm.
3 for $12.00
10 10 for $35.00
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