Paul Scherer Triumph Tulip: The Quest for a Black Tulip

 

For centuries, tulip breeders chased an almost impossible dream: a truly black tulip.

They came remarkably close. Cultivars such as ‘Queen of Night’ produced flowers so dark that, under certain conditions, they appeared black. But look closely in good light and the truth emerged: they were actually very deep shades of purple or maroon.

Then came ‘Paul Scherer’.

Its flowers are an extraordinarily deep purple-black—velvety, brooding and sometimes convincingly black from even a modest distance. The Royal Horticultural Society describes the color simply as “very dark purple-black throughout.”

It is one of the darkest tulips available, and its story is tied directly to the long-running effort to produce the elusive black tulip.

When Was ‘Paul Scherer’ Developed?

‘Paul Scherer’ was bred by Dutch tulip breeder Geert Hageman, whose work on black tulips began during the late 1970s.

An account of Hageman's breeding work reports that in 1979 he crossed some of the darkest tulips then available, eventually raising thousands of seedlings from the resulting seed.

It was painstaking work.

Tulips grown from seed don't flower immediately. Bulbs must develop for several years before a breeder can finally see what sort of flower a particular seedling will produce.

According to the same historical account, Hageman was leaving his greenhouse shortly after midnight on February 18, 1986, when he noticed an exceptionally dark flower among his seedlings. It was the culmination of years of breeding toward the blackest possible tulip.

The cultivar is therefore commonly dated to 1986 as its breeding or selection date. Another horticultural history likewise identifies it as a cultivar bred by Hageman in 1986.

But that wasn't when gardeners could buy it.

Eleven More Years of Waiting

Finding an exceptional tulip is only the beginning.

A new tulip exists initially as a single bulb or a very small number of bulbs. Unlike an annual plant, it cannot simply be multiplied rapidly from thousands of seeds while remaining genetically identical.

The bulb has to produce offsets, those offsets must grow, and those in turn must produce more offsets.

Consequently, Hageman reportedly spent another eleven years building sufficient stock for commercial introduction.

That places its commercial introduction around 1997.

So there are really two useful dates associated with ‘Paul Scherer’:

1986 — Hageman selected the remarkable dark seedling.

About 1997 — sufficient stock had been produced for commercial introduction.

That distinction explains why different sources sometimes give different dates for tulip cultivars. “Introduced,” “registered,” “selected” and “released commercially” do not necessarily mean the same thing.

Who Was Paul Scherer?

Here the story becomes particularly interesting.

According to the historical account of Hageman's breeding program, the tulip was named for Paul Scherer, the mayor of a German city. Hageman reportedly considered several names during the long years required to build up commercial stock before finally settling upon ‘Paul Scherer’.

Unfortunately, readily available horticultural sources provide frustratingly little additional information about the man himself or the precise circumstances connecting him with Hageman.

So it would be unwise to embroider the story.

What we can reasonably say is that the cultivar commemorates a German mayor named Paul Scherer, rather than describing the flower's color or appearance.

It is a rather understated name for such a dramatic flower.

Is It Really a Black Tulip?

Well...

Almost.

And that qualification matters.

There is no truly jet-black pigment in tulips comparable to black ink or coal. What we perceive as black in the darkest tulips is actually an extremely concentrated dark purple.

‘Paul Scherer’ pushes that coloration remarkably far.

The RHS describes it as dark purple-black, while specialist bulb supplier John Scheepers describes the flowers as purple-black with an ivory interior base covered by a lilac veil.

In bright sunlight, the purple becomes more apparent.

On an overcast day, at dusk or when contrasted against pale flowers, ‘Paul Scherer’ can look remarkably close to black.

Perhaps that is actually more interesting than genuine black would be. The petals possess subtle changes of color as the light moves across their velvety surfaces.

Black would merely be black.

‘Paul Scherer’ has shadows.

What Type of Tulip Is ‘Paul Scherer’?

‘Paul Scherer’ is a Triumph tulip.

The RHS places it firmly within the Triumph Group, whose members produce single, cup-shaped flowers during the middle and later portions of the tulip season.

Triumph tulips are among the most useful tulips for ordinary gardens.

The class developed from crosses involving Single Early and later-flowering tulips, producing plants that combine the traditional tulip shape with strong stems, useful height and dependable midseason flowering. Modern bulb specialists continue to value Triumphs both for landscape planting and forcing.

‘Paul Scherer’ generally grows around 17 to 20 inches tall. The RHS gives a maximum height of approximately 50 cm, while commercial growers commonly list it around 18 inches.

The flowers are beautifully proportioned—broad-based, egg-shaped cups carried on strong upright stems.

The form is thoroughly traditional.

The color most certainly isn't.

Darker Than ‘Queen of Night’?

‘Queen of Night’ has long been the standard against which dark tulips are judged.

But ‘Paul Scherer’ may actually be darker.

John Scheepers notes that some consider it darker than ‘Queen of Night’, and there is another important distinction between them: ‘Paul Scherer’ flowers earlier. It can bloom roughly two weeks before ‘Queen of Night’.

That gives the gardener an interesting opportunity.

Plant both.

‘Paul Scherer’ can begin the dark-tulip display during the Triumph season, while ‘Queen of Night’ continues it later.

Add a dark Double Late such as ‘Black Hero’, and the succession can be extended still further.

A black-tulip garden needn't be confined to a single week.

How to Use ‘Paul Scherer’ in the Landscape

Dark flowers require a little thought.

Plant ‘Paul Scherer’ against dark soil or in front of dense evergreen foliage, and from a distance the flowers can simply disappear.

Give them contrast.

The RHS recommends the cultivar for beds and borders, edging, cottage gardens, containers and cutting gardens.

Its moderate height makes it particularly useful through the front and middle portions of borders, where the flowers can be seen closely enough to appreciate their unusual coloring.

And, as with most tulips, plant more than one or two.

A solitary black tulip looks curious.

Twenty-five look intentional.

Black and White

Perhaps the most dramatic combination is also the simplest:

‘Paul Scherer’ and white tulips.

A planting of ivory or pure white flowers interspersed with these nearly black cups creates tremendous contrast. Horticultural sources specifically recommend white as a companion for ‘Paul Scherer’.

The white makes the dark tulips appear darker.

The dark tulips make the white appear brighter.

Neither color has to do much work.

For a formal garden, plant the two in broad blocks or ribbons. In a more informal border, allow groups of dark flowers to emerge irregularly through a larger planting of white.

Black and Pink

Pink produces an entirely different effect.

Soft blush, shell pink or rose-colored tulips beside ‘Paul Scherer’ create a surprisingly elegant combination. Growers also specifically recommend pink flowers as companions.

Pale pink is particularly effective because it softens what might otherwise become a rather severe color scheme.

Deep rose makes the planting richer and more dramatic.

You could even combine ‘Paul Scherer’ with a large pink Darwin Hybrid, provided the bloom periods overlap sufficiently in your climate.

Try Apricot and Peach

One of my favorite ways to use almost-black flowers is beside apricot, peach or salmon.

The warm colors seem to glow against the dark purple.

A combination with an apricot-colored early or midseason tulip can be exceptionally sophisticated, though flowering times should be checked carefully when mixing classes.

The object isn't necessarily to alternate bulbs one-for-one.

Plant generous irregular groups of each color and allow them to mingle at their edges.

Nature seldom plants checkerboards.

Neither should we.

Silver Foliage

There is another possibility that doesn't involve another tulip at all.

‘Paul Scherer’ looks excellent against silver or gray foliage. Horticultural recommendations specifically mention silver foliage as an effective companion for its dark flowers.

The contrast can be remarkable.

Low silver-leaved plants beneath the dark tulips provide a cool background without competing for attention.

Green foliage says spring.

Silver foliage says something rather more mysterious.

Plant It in Containers

‘Paul Scherer’ is particularly effective in containers, where the flowers can be examined at close range. Both the RHS and specialty growers recommend it for container culture.

A large terracotta pot filled entirely with ‘Paul Scherer’ can be magnificent.

For something more elaborate, combine the bulbs with low white or pale pink spring flowers.

A light-colored container can also provide useful contrast. Against pale stone or weathered terracotta, the flowers become much easier to see than they would against a black pot.

An Excellent Cut Flower

Those strong Triumph stems also make ‘Paul Scherer’ an excellent cut tulip.

Floret describes it as weather-resistant, long-lasting and especially effective arranged en masse, with a vase life of roughly seven to ten days under suitable conditions.

The color is particularly useful to flower arrangers because it provides something ordinary red and purple tulips cannot: visual depth.

Combine it with cream, white, blush pink or apricot.

Or put a dozen ‘Paul Scherer’ stems in a vase by themselves.

They need very little assistance.

Growing ‘Paul Scherer’

Plant bulbs in autumn in full sun and fertile, well-drained soil.

The RHS recommends planting approximately 4 to 6 inches deep, with protection from excessive wet and severe wind. Some American bulb specialists recommend somewhat deeper planting—around 6 to 8 inches—for Triumph tulips.

As always with tulips, drainage is important.

After flowering, remove the spent flowers if you intend to retain the bulbs, but allow the foliage to yellow naturally.

Those leaves are feeding next year's bulb.

If you cut flowers for arrangements and hope for future flowering, leave plenty of foliage behind. Floret recommends retaining at least two sets of leaves when harvesting tulips intended to perennialize.

An Award-Winning Tulip

‘Paul Scherer’ eventually received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, recognition that the plant possesses genuine garden value beyond the novelty of its color.

That is worth emphasizing.

A nearly black tulip might easily have been nothing more than a breeder's curiosity.

Instead, ‘Paul Scherer’ combines its extraordinary color with the practical virtues of the Triumph class: strong stems, classic flower form, useful height and good landscape performance.

The Nearly Black Tulip

The fascination with black tulips is centuries old.

Breeders pursued them. Gardeners coveted them. Writers imagined them. Alexandre Dumas even built his 1850 novel The Black Tulip around the obsessive quest to produce one.

Geert Hageman took up that same horticultural challenge in the twentieth century.

Beginning with crosses made in 1979, he eventually discovered his exceptional dark seedling in 1986. After another eleven years of multiplication, gardeners could finally grow it themselves.

The result was ‘Paul Scherer’.

Technically, it isn't black.

Stand in bright sunshine and look closely and you will find the purple.

But plant fifty of them among white tulips and view them across the spring garden on a cloudy afternoon.

You may decide that “almost black” is quite black enough.

Return to GoGardenNow.com 

Apricot Beauty Single Early Tulip: A Soft-Spoken Classic

 

Some tulips command attention with scarlet, gold or purple. ‘Apricot Beauty’ takes another course altogether.

Its flowers open in a delicate mixture of apricot, salmon, peach and soft pink, with the colors changing subtly as the blossoms mature. In some light they appear predominantly salmon-pink; in others, warm apricot and orange emerge from the petals. There is even a gentle fragrance—something we don't often expect from tulips.

Introduced more than seventy years ago, ‘Apricot Beauty’ has survived generations of newer introductions and remains widely grown. That alone says something about it. Tulip varieties disappear from commerce with surprising speed. The good ones endure.

When Was ‘Apricot Beauty’ Introduced?

‘Apricot Beauty’ was introduced in the Netherlands in 1953. Dutch bulb specialist Peter C. Nijssen confirms the 1953 introduction date, as do historic-bulb specialists.

The originator is recorded as the Dutch breeder C. van der Vlugt van Kimmenade. A botanical-garden cultivar inventory lists Tulipa ‘Apricot Beauty’, Division 1, as C. v.d. Vlugt v. Kimmenade, 1953, and Dutch bulb sources likewise credit him with bringing the cultivar to market that year.

That places ‘Apricot Beauty’ firmly among the mid-20th-century Dutch cultivars that have now become classics in their own right.

Why Is It Called ‘Apricot Beauty’?

This is one tulip name that doesn't require much historical speculation.

It is an apricot beauty.

The Royal Horticultural Society describes the flowers more precisely as light, creamy salmon-pink tinged with orange. Other descriptions emphasize the unusual mixture of apricot-orange and salmon-pink.

The color is difficult to capture with a single word because it changes with the flower.

The unopened bud may appear quite pink. As the flower develops, peach and salmon become more apparent. When fully opened in sunlight, warmer apricot and orange tones can emerge, while older flowers may soften toward pale pink.

That variability is part of its charm.

A mass planting doesn't look like a flat block of manufactured color. Individual flowers catch the light differently, creating a gentle mixture of related shades.

What Type of Tulip Is It?

‘Apricot Beauty’ is a Single Early tulip, classified in Division 1.

Single Early tulips are among the first of the familiar large-flowered garden tulips to bloom. They generally grow no more than about 18 inches tall and produce classic, cup-shaped flowers on relatively stout stems. The RHS describes the group as reaching about 45 cm and flowering in early to mid-spring.

‘Apricot Beauty’ typically grows about 14 to 18 inches tall, depending upon conditions. Its moderate stature and sturdy stems help the flowers withstand the uncertain weather of early spring better than some taller, later tulips.

It usually flowers in early spring, often during April in colder climates.

And that early flowering is important.

An Apricot Beginning to Tulip Season

One of the best reasons to plant ‘Apricot Beauty’ is its position in the tulip calendar.

Many of the great Darwin Hybrids, Triumphs and Single Late tulips are still waiting in the wings when Single Early tulips begin flowering.

By combining ‘Apricot Beauty’ with midseason and late cultivars, you can extend the tulip display for weeks rather than enjoying one enormous burst of flowers followed by nothing.

Think of ‘Apricot Beauty’ as one of the opening acts.

It is good enough, however, that the audience may not be particularly anxious for the main performance.

There's Something Else—It's Fragrant

One of the delightful surprises of ‘Apricot Beauty’ is its fragrance.

Tulips are seldom regarded as fragrant flowers. Roses, gardenias and hyacinths get that glory. Tulips are generally appreciated with the eyes rather than the nose.

But ‘Apricot Beauty’ possesses a noticeable sweet fragrance. Fine Gardening's Susanne Mandigo described discovering the cultivar by following an unexpected fruity scent in her garden until she realized that it was coming from the tulip.

The RHS plant shop also recommends placing ‘Apricot Beauty’ where its subtle sweet scent can be enjoyed.

That suggests an obvious landscape use.

Plant some close to where people walk.

How to Use ‘Apricot Beauty’ in the Landscape

Its moderate height makes ‘Apricot Beauty’ particularly useful near the front and middle of flower borders.

The RHS recommends it for flower beds and borders, edging, cottage gardens, courtyards, containers and cutting gardens.

I would particularly favor it beside a walkway or near an entrance.

There you can appreciate both the subtle coloring and fragrance—two qualities likely to be lost if the bulbs are planted fifty feet away at the back of the property.

Its relatively soft color also makes ‘Apricot Beauty’ useful in places where brilliant primary-colored tulips might be too aggressive.

Plant It Generously

As with most tulips, ‘Apricot Beauty’ improves dramatically when planted in groups.

Five bulbs will show you what the cultivar looks like.

Twenty-five begin to create a landscape effect.

Fifty planted in a broad irregular drift can produce a wonderful wash of salmon, peach and apricot.

Historic-bulb specialist Old House Gardens quotes garden writer Ann Lovejoy as saying that ‘Apricot Beauty’ should be planted “by the bagful.”

That seems sensible advice.

Soft colors tolerate mass planting especially well. A hundred scarlet tulips can shout across the landscape. A hundred ‘Apricot Beauty’ tulips produce something more like a warm glow.

Apricot and Purple

One of the finest companions for ‘Apricot Beauty’ is deep purple.

The RHS-associated descriptions specifically note how well its salmon-apricot coloring works with purple.

Deep violet, plum and near-black tulips provide weight and contrast, making the lighter flowers appear more luminous.

This is particularly effective if the purple tulips are planted behind or among the apricot ones rather than arranged in alternating rows.

Gardens generally look better when they don't resemble checkerboards.

Apricot and White

For something quieter, pair ‘Apricot Beauty’ with white or ivory.

White emphasizes the warm coloring without competing with it.

White narcissus can be particularly effective if you select cultivars whose flowering period overlaps. Cream-colored flowers soften the combination still further.

Against a white house, pale stone wall or gray weathered fence, the effect can be exceptionally handsome.

Pink, Peach and Salmon

Another possibility is to abandon contrast altogether and create a tonal planting.

Combine ‘Apricot Beauty’ with tulips in blush pink, salmon, peach and pale orange.

The individual colors flow into one another, producing a planting that looks almost painterly.

This works especially well in cottage gardens and traditional mixed borders, where rigid blocks of color can sometimes look too formal.

Add blue forget-me-nots beneath them and the whole scheme comes alive.

Blue at Their Feet

Low blue flowers are particularly useful beneath apricot tulips.

Forget-me-nots, grape hyacinths (Muscari) and other small blue spring flowers provide complementary contrast without competing with the tulips for height.

The cool blue makes the warm apricot appear warmer.

It is one of those garden combinations based on elementary color theory that doesn't look theoretical at all when it is flowering.

It simply looks right.

Excellent for Containers

‘Apricot Beauty’ is also particularly good in pots and containers.

Its relatively short, sturdy stems are well suited to container culture, and placing the flowers closer to eye level makes their delicate coloration easier to appreciate.

It is also a traditional forcing tulip, valued for bringing into early bloom under controlled conditions. Old House Gardens specifically lists it as suitable for forcing.

For an outdoor spring container, plant the bulbs densely.

A large aged terracotta pot filled entirely with ‘Apricot Beauty’ would need very little embellishment.

If you want companions, tuck blue violas or forget-me-nots around the edge.

Plant It Near Outdoor Living Areas

Because it is fragrant, consider ‘Apricot Beauty’ for places where people actually spend time:

near the front steps, beside a terrace, along a garden walk or around a bench.

The fragrance isn't going to roll across the garden like an old Southern gardenia. It is subtler than that.

You need to get reasonably close.

That makes the scent feel almost like a reward for stopping to examine the flower.

A Fine Cut Flower

‘Apricot Beauty’ also makes an excellent cut tulip, and specialist growers continue to recommend it for cutting.

Its unusual color is especially useful in arrangements.

Combine it with cream, white, lavender or deep purple, or simply fill a vase with ‘Apricot Beauty’ alone.

Because the flowers continue to develop after cutting, their changing coloration becomes especially noticeable indoors.

And unlike many beautiful tulips, this one contributes a little fragrance to the room as well.

Growing ‘Apricot Beauty’

Plant bulbs in fall in fertile, well-drained soil, preferably in full sun.

The RHS recommends planting tulips approximately 4 to 6 inches deep, with protection from excessive wet and very strong winds.

Good drainage is essential.

After flowering, remove the spent flowers if you hope to retain the bulbs, but allow the foliage to remain until it yellows naturally. The leaves are rebuilding the bulb's reserves for the following year.

Like many highly bred tulips, ‘Apricot Beauty’ may not perform indefinitely in every garden. Yet it has acquired something of a reputation for persistence under favorable conditions; Dutch bulb sources note that it can return when grown in a sunny, nutritious site.

For dependable display, however, gardeners in difficult tulip climates may prefer to supplement older bulbs with fresh ones periodically.

An Award-Winning Old Favorite

‘Apricot Beauty’ has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, and specialist growers note that it has won multiple awards over its long history.

But perhaps its greatest distinction is simply that gardeners still want it.

Since C. van der Vlugt van Kimmenade introduced it in 1953, thousands of new tulips have entered the market. Many have disappeared again.

‘Apricot Beauty’ remains.

Its success isn't difficult to understand. It combines early flowering, sturdy stems, fragrance and an exceptionally subtle mixture of apricot, salmon, peach and pink.

Plant it beside purple for drama. Surround it with white for elegance. Let blue forget-me-nots wander beneath it. Or plant a great drift of ‘Apricot Beauty’ by itself.

Some tulips are fashionable for a season.

‘Apricot Beauty’ has had more than seventy springs to prove that beauty lasts.

Return to GoGardenNow.com. 

Yokohama Triumph Tulip: A Golden Name From Japan

 

Yellow tulips have a particular talent for looking like spring itself.

After months of brown earth, gray skies and bare branches, ‘Yokohama’ arrives with clear, saffron-yellow flowers held above fresh green foliage. It is neither wildly fringed nor elaborately double. Instead, it possesses the clean cup-shaped flower, strong stems and dependable garden performance for which Triumph tulips are valued.

And then there is the name.

Why should a Dutch-bred yellow tulip carry the name of one of Japan's great port cities?

That question leads us into a surprisingly interesting bit of tulip history.

What Type of Tulip Is ‘Yokohama’?

‘Yokohama’ is classified today as a Triumph tulip.

The Royal Horticultural Society describes it as a Triumph Group cultivar with saffron-yellow, pointed flowers produced in mid-spring on plants approximately 35 cm—or about 14 inches—tall.

Triumph tulips are among the great practical tulips of the garden.

They produce the classic single, cup-shaped flowers most people immediately recognize as tulips, but they generally have sturdier stems than many older garden types. Their moderate height and midseason flowering make them particularly useful for bedding, containers and mass landscape plantings.

‘Yokohama’ is comparatively compact for a Triumph, which opens up some interesting possibilities in the garden.

When Was ‘Yokohama’ Introduced?

There is some confusion about the date in modern horticultural sources.

Several retail references give 1973 as its introduction date, and that date has been repeated widely.

However, stronger evidence points to an earlier date.

A peer-reviewed study of tulip cultivars published in Scientia Horticulturae, drawing upon established cultivar records, lists ‘Yokohama’ as a Triumph tulip dating from 1961.

More importantly, a European cultivar reference identifies the originator as J. F. Van den Berg & Sons and gives 1961 as the registration date.

For that reason, 1961 is the date I would use rather than the frequently repeated 1973 date.

The discrepancy may result from confusion between registration, introduction and later commercial distribution. Such muddles are surprisingly common in old bulb catalogues.

So our best available evidence is:

‘Yokohama’ was registered in 1961 and originated with the Dutch firm J. F. Van den Berg & Sons.

Why Is It Called ‘Yokohama’?

This part of the story is more mysterious.

The name plainly refers to Yokohama, Japan, the great port city on Tokyo Bay. What I have not found is reliable documentation from Van den Berg explaining why the name was chosen.

So once again, it is worth separating history from horticultural folklore.

We can confidently say that the cultivar bears the name of Yokohama.

We cannot confidently say that it commemorated a particular event, person or Japanese connection without documentary evidence.

There is, however, some historical context that makes the choice less peculiar than it might initially seem.

By the middle of the twentieth century, Japanese place-names had become familiar throughout Europe and North America, and Dutch bulb breeders frequently gave tulips international geographical names. A memorable foreign city made an excellent cultivar name.

And Yokohama certainly qualified.

The City Behind the Name

Yokohama grew from a relatively modest settlement into one of Japan's most important international ports after Japan opened more fully to foreign trade during the nineteenth century.

The port opened to foreign commerce in 1859, and Yokohama became one of the principal points of contact between Japan and the Western world.

That gives the name a certain appropriateness for a Dutch tulip.

The Netherlands, after all, had a particularly long relationship with Japan. During Japan's centuries of restricted foreign contact under the Tokugawa shogunate, the Dutch were the principal Europeans permitted to maintain regular commercial relations with the country through their trading post at Dejima.

I have found no evidence that the breeder chose ‘Yokohama’ specifically because of that Dutch-Japanese history, so we shouldn't turn coincidence into fact.

Still, for a Dutch flower to carry the name of a Japanese port long associated with contact between Japan and the West seems rather fitting.

A Pure, Clear Yellow

The chief attraction of ‘Yokohama’ is its color.

The RHS describes the flowers as saffron yellow, with pointed tips. Other horticultural descriptions emphasize the cultivar's bright, clear yellow coloration.

There is little muddiness or complicated striping.

It is simply yellow—and sometimes simplicity is precisely what a garden needs.

The flowers rise above broadly lance-shaped green foliage on relatively sturdy stems.

Because ‘Yokohama’ grows only around 14 inches tall, it remains compact enough to resist some of the battering that taller tulips can receive during windy spring weather.

How to Use ‘Yokohama’ in the Landscape

‘Yokohama’ is particularly useful near the front of a flower border.

Its modest height means it won't tower awkwardly above neighboring plants, yet its strong yellow color gives it considerable visibility.

The RHS recommends it for flower beds and borders, cottage gardens, courtyard gardens, containers, cutting gardens and underplanting roses and shrubs.

That last use is particularly interesting.

A group of yellow tulips flowering beneath still-bare roses can provide color at precisely the time when the rose garden needs it most.

By the time the roses begin their real performance, the tulips are finishing theirs.

Good gardens make use of time as well as space.

Plant ‘Yokohama’ in Masses

Yellow is a powerful landscape color.

That makes ‘Yokohama’ particularly effective when planted in broad groups or drifts.

Five bulbs provide an accent.

Twenty-five provide a display.

Fifty or a hundred can produce a great pool of yellow that is visible from across the garden.

For a formal landscape, plant them in disciplined blocks or ribbons.

For a cottage or informal garden, loosen the arrangement into irregular groups.

Either approach works because the flowers themselves are so clean and uniform.

Yellow and Blue: A Classic Combination

Perhaps the finest companions for ‘Yokohama’ are blue spring flowers.

The combination is almost impossible to spoil.

Blue grape hyacinths (Muscari) planted beneath yellow tulips create one of the classic spring bulb combinations.

Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) works beautifully for the same reason, and horticultural references specifically recommend combining ‘Yokohama’ with forget-me-nots and Siberian squill.

Forget-me-nots provide a softer blue carpet.

The tall yellow cups rise above the blue flowers, and each color intensifies the other.

It is an old-fashioned combination because it works.

Pair It With White

For a calmer effect, combine ‘Yokohama’ with white tulips, white narcissus or other white spring flowers.

Yellow and white produce a fresh, clean display particularly suited to entrances, paths and formal beds.

Cream can soften the combination further.

A planting of pale cream daffodils, white tulips and yellow ‘Yokohama’ has enough variation to remain interesting without becoming noisy.

Or Give It Some Drama

If cheerful yellow isn't quite enough, place ‘Yokohama’ beside deep purple or nearly black tulips.

Now the character changes completely.

The dark flowers provide weight and shadow; the yellow appears almost luminous beside them.

Deep burgundy can achieve much the same result.

Yellow is one of those colors that becomes more interesting when something dark is placed beside it.

Excellent in Containers

Its compact height makes ‘Yokohama’ an excellent container tulip.

Large terracotta pots filled generously with the bulbs can produce an impressive spring display without the flowers becoming top-heavy.

For a simple container, plant ‘Yokohama’ alone.

For a layered display, underplant it with blue violas, pansies, forget-me-nots or grape hyacinths.

Yellow flowers in an aged terracotta pot have a timeless quality about them.

There is no need to improve upon everything.

A Good Cut Flower

Like other Triumph tulips, ‘Yokohama’ also makes a useful cut flower. The RHS specifically recommends it for cutting.

Yellow tulips are particularly useful in spring arrangements because they combine easily with white, blue, purple and other yellow flowers.

A simple vase of ‘Yokohama’ alone can be equally effective.

And since the plants are relatively compact, you can grow a dedicated row in the cutting garden without sacrificing much space.

Growing ‘Yokohama’

Plant the bulbs in late autumn in fertile, well-drained soil, preferably in full sun.

The RHS recommends planting ‘Yokohama’ approximately 4 to 6 inches deep and protecting it from excessive winter wet and strong winds.

Drainage matters.

Tulips can tolerate remarkable winter cold while dormant underground, but a bulb sitting in soggy soil is conducting an experiment unlikely to end happily.

After flowering, deadhead the spent blossoms but allow the foliage to remain until it has yellowed naturally.

Those leaves are replenishing the bulb.

A Tulip With an International Name

‘Yokohama’ combines several virtues that explain its longevity: clear yellow flowers, compact growth, sturdy Triumph stems and considerable versatility in the landscape.

The best evidence places its registration in 1961, from the Dutch firm J. F. Van den Berg & Sons.

Why they chose the name of Yokohama remains uncertain.

Perhaps the city simply had the cosmopolitan ring the breeder wanted. Perhaps there was a particular connection now buried in an old Dutch bulb catalogue. Until documentary evidence turns up, we should leave the question open rather than inventing a story.

But the name has certainly traveled well.

A Dutch tulip carrying the name of a Japanese port, planted more than sixty years later in gardens around the world—that seems somehow appropriate.

And when those clear yellow flowers appear in spring, ‘Yokohama’ needs very little explanation anyway.

 

 

Tarda Species Tulip: A Little Star From Central Asia

 

The great hybrid tulips command attention by standing tall. Tulipa tarda takes almost the opposite approach.

Growing only a few inches above the ground, this little species tulip produces clusters of star-shaped flowers that are bright golden yellow in the center and broadly tipped with white. When sunshine opens a colony of them, the effect is rather like scattering dozens of little yellow-and-white stars across the spring garden.

It is small, tough, cheerful and remarkably willing to remain in the garden year after year.

For gardeners who would rather plant a tulip once than conduct an annual bulb-replacement campaign, Tulipa tarda deserves attention.

A True Species Tulip

Unlike ‘Oxford’, ‘Pink Impression’ and the thousands of other named garden hybrids, Tulipa tarda is a botanical species.

That distinction matters.

Species tulips are wild tulips—or selections very close to them—rather than the products of generations of breeding for enormous flowers, unusual colors and exhibition form.

Consequently, they often look quite different from the familiar Dutch tulip.

Tulipa tarda is low-growing, usually reaching only about 4 to 6 inches tall. Instead of producing one enormous goblet on a tall stem, a bulb can produce several flowers, creating a small bouquet just above the foliage.

The flowers themselves are pointed and star-like when fully open.

Where Does Tulipa tarda Come From?

Tulipa tarda comes from Central Asia, the ancestral heartland of many tulips.

Kew's Plants of the World Online currently recognizes it as native to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and northwestern Iran and describes it as a bulbous plant of the temperate biome.

Its association with Central Asia is important because this is the great natural homeland of tulips.

Long before Holland became synonymous with them, wild tulips were flowering across the mountains, steppes and rocky slopes of Central and western Asia.

The ancestors of the enormous tulips in our modern gardens ultimately came from this much harsher world.

A Plant Made for Mountains and Dry Summers

The natural conditions of species tulips also explain how they should be treated in gardens.

Tulips generally appreciate cool conditions and moisture during their active spring growth followed by warmer, drier conditions during summer dormancy. Free drainage is particularly important.

That is why species tulips are so often successful in rock gardens, gravel gardens and raised beds.

A dormant tulip bulb doesn't mind being dry.

Sitting in warm, waterlogged soil all summer is another matter.

The RHS recommends fertile, humus-rich but well-drained soil for T. tarda and warns against excessive wet.

When Was Tulipa tarda Introduced?

Here we need to distinguish between introduction to horticulture and formal botanical description.

The name Tulipa tarda Stapf was formally published in 1933 in the Botanical Magazine, volume 156, plate 9321. The botanist responsible was Otto Stapf, an Austrian-born botanist who spent much of his distinguished career at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

There is a little taxonomic wrinkle, however.

Stapf had described a closely related plant as Tulipa urumiensis in 1932. Modern taxonomic authorities now treat that name as a synonym of Tulipa tarda. Kew accepts T. tarda as the correct name and lists T. urumiensis among its synonyms.

So the safest historical statement is that Otto Stapf formally described Tulipa tarda in 1933.

That is more precise than saying that he "introduced" it in 1933, since the plant may have been present in European collections before its formal botanical publication.

Why Is It Called Tarda?

The specific epithet tarda comes from Latin and means “late,” “slow” or “tardy.”

In botanical names, tardus and its feminine form tarda generally refer to something occurring comparatively late.

The name is therefore usually understood as a reference to the plant's comparatively late flowering in relation to certain other small species tulips.

There is a certain irony here for gardeners, because Tulipa tarda still flowers during spring and is often described horticulturally as an early- to mid-spring bloomer.

Apparently even a tardy tulip keeps better time than some people.

Flowers Like Little Stars

The flower is what makes Tulipa tarda instantly recognizable.

When closed, the blossoms are fairly modest. Their outer surfaces may show green and reddish coloring, giving little indication of what will happen when the sun appears.

Then they open.

The six pointed tepals spread almost flat, forming a star with a brilliant yellow center surrounded by broad white tips. RHS Plants describes the flowers as white-tipped yellow, often with red and green flushing on the reverse.

A mature clump can carry numerous flowers simultaneously.

Because the plants are so low, the effect is not one of towering color but of a carpet of stars lying close to the earth.

Sunshine Makes All the Difference

Like many species tulips, Tulipa tarda responds dramatically to sunlight.

The flowers open widely in bright conditions and may close considerably when the weather is cool or cloudy.

That makes placement important.

Give this tulip plenty of sunshine if you want to see it at its best. The RHS notes that specialist tulips generally prefer sunny positions and that their flowers may fail to open fully in shade.

This is not a plant for a gloomy corner beneath an evergreen hedge.

One of the Best Tulips for a Rock Garden

If you have a rock garden, Tulipa tarda is almost tailor-made for it.

Its diminutive proportions look natural among stones, and the sharply drained soil commonly provided for rock-garden plants suits the bulb.

Plant bulbs in irregular groups rather than rows.

A dozen emerging from pockets between stones can look as though they simply appeared there on their own.

Twenty-five or fifty can eventually create a substantial colony.

The object should be to suggest nature rather than a municipal flower bed.

Excellent Along Walkways

Because Tulipa tarda is so short, plant it where you can actually see it.

The front edge of a border or alongside a walkway is ideal.

The RHS specifically recommends it for rock gardens, edging, beds, borders, containers and cottage gardens.

Along a path, the little flowers can be appreciated at close range, including the reddish and green markings on the backs of the petals that are easily missed from a distance.

It is a plant that rewards bending down for a closer look.

Let It Naturalize

This may be the greatest advantage of Tulipa tarda.

It is one of the tulips capable of naturalizing and increasing in favorable garden conditions.

RHS Plants specifically notes that T. tarda does not need to be lifted annually and can naturalize when planted in open ground. More generally, the RHS notes that specialist or species tulips are much more likely than ordinary border tulips to reflower and multiply.

That makes T. tarda fundamentally different from many modern hybrid tulips.

With a highly bred bedding tulip, the first year's display may be magnificent and subsequent years disappointing.

With Tulipa tarda, a modest initial planting can become better with age.

Now there's a refreshing concept.

Use It in Gravel Gardens

A sunny gravel garden provides another excellent home.

The drainage suits the bulbs, while the low-growing flowers appear naturally at home among gravel and stones.

Plant them among restrained, drought-tolerant perennials that won't smother the tulips during spring.

Low sedums, creeping thyme and other compact plants can make good neighbors, provided there remains enough open ground for the tulips to emerge.

As summer approaches, the tulip foliage disappears and the summer plants take over.

Try It in Containers

Small species tulips are also excellent for pots, troughs and containers.

T. tarda is particularly useful because its flowers can be brought closer to eye level, where their markings become much easier to appreciate.

Use a free-draining potting mixture and plant enough bulbs to create a generous display.

With bulbs this small, excessive restraint accomplishes very little.

A pot containing three bulbs looks economical.

A pot containing twenty looks like spring.

What Should You Plant With It?

Because Tulipa tarda combines yellow and white, it mixes easily with other early spring flowers.

Blue is perhaps the most obvious companion.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) provide a low carpet of blue beneath the yellow-and-white stars. Small blue violas can accomplish something similar.

Dwarf daffodils also work beautifully, especially cultivars whose flowers are proportionate to the little tulips.

Small species crocuses can provide an earlier layer of bloom, while low-growing spring perennials can continue the display after the tulips finish.

The important consideration is scale.

Don't surround a six-inch species tulip with enormous plants and then wonder where it went.

Naturalistic Planting Suits It Best

Although T. tarda can certainly be used in formal beds, its character lends itself especially well to naturalistic planting.

Rather than spacing every bulb exactly six inches from its neighbor, plant little groups.

Five here.

Nine there.

Perhaps fifteen around a stone.

Allow spaces between the groups, and let them gradually expand.

The result eventually looks less like something installed on Saturday afternoon and more like a colony that has occupied the place for generations.

That illusion is one of the finest tricks available to a gardener.

Growing Tulipa tarda

Plant the bulbs in autumn in a sunny location with fertile, well-drained soil.

The RHS recommends planting T. tarda approximately 4 to 6 inches deep.

Good drainage is particularly important if you hope to keep the plants for many years.

After flowering, resist the temptation to tidy everything immediately. Allow the foliage to remain until it yellows naturally. Those leaves are replenishing the bulb.

If the plants are happy, offsets can be separated and replanted, although there is often little reason to interfere with an established colony.

Sometimes the best gardening technique is simply knowing when to leave something alone.

A Small Tulip With a Long Future

Tulipa tarda will never produce the enormous flowers of ‘Pink Impression’ or the towering red goblets of ‘Oxford’.

Nor should it.

Its virtues belong to another tradition entirely.

It gives us small star-shaped yellow-and-white flowers, compact growth, Central Asian ancestry and the ability to settle into suitable gardens and increase over time.

It belongs among stones, beside paths, at the front of borders and in sunny places where its flowers can open fully to the spring sky.

And there is something rather satisfying about planting a genuine species tulip.

Modern hybrids show us what generations of skilled breeders can persuade a tulip to become.

Tulipa tarda reminds us what a tulip was in the first place.

Return to GoGardenNow.com. 

Spring Green Viridiflora Tulip: A Touch of Green in the Spring Garden

 

Green is everywhere in the spring garden, but it is not where we usually expect to find it on a tulip.

That is precisely what makes ‘Spring Green’ so distinctive.

Its elegant flowers are creamy white to ivory, each petal marked through the center with a broad feather of fresh green. As the flower matures, the white becomes more pronounced while the green stripe remains, producing one of the cleanest and most sophisticated color combinations among tulips.

There is nothing gaudy about ‘Spring Green’. It is cool, restrained and remarkably versatile—a tulip that can look equally appropriate in an old cottage garden, a formal border or a thoroughly modern landscape.

Why Is It Called ‘Spring Green’?

For once, a tulip name requires very little detective work.

The flowers really are spring green.

Each creamy-white petal bears a conspicuous green stripe or flame running through its center. Unlike the accidental green that occasionally appears in ordinary flowers, this coloration is a defining genetic characteristic of the Viridiflora tulips.

The name therefore describes both the flower and the season remarkably well. Its fresh green markings are almost exactly the color of young leaves emerging throughout the garden in spring.

One could hardly have named it more appropriately.

When Was ‘Spring Green’ Introduced?

‘Spring Green’ was introduced in 1969 and is generally credited to the Dutch firm Gebroeders Van den Berg.

That makes it a relatively modern tulip compared with some of the old cultivars that have survived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but more than half a century of continued commercial production has established ‘Spring Green’ as something of a modern classic.

It has also received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, recognition of its value as a dependable garden plant.

Its continued popularity is particularly impressive because Viridiflora tulips occupy a rather small and unusual corner of the tulip world. ‘Spring Green’ has escaped that niche to become one of the best-known green-flowered tulips of all.

What Type of Tulip Is It?

‘Spring Green’ belongs to Division 8, the Viridiflora Group.

The name Viridiflora comes from Latin: viridis means green, while flora refers to the flower. Green-flowered is therefore essentially what the name means.

Viridiflora tulips are distinguished by a characteristic green streak, stripe or flame on the petals. The amount of green varies tremendously among cultivars. Some flowers are predominantly another color with a narrow green stripe, while others display so much green that it becomes the dominant color.

‘Spring Green’ strikes an especially pleasing balance.

The green is strong enough to be unmistakable, but the creamy-white margins give the flower lightness and contrast.

An Unusual Chapter in Tulip History

The green coloration of Viridiflora tulips has an interesting botanical origin.

The group developed from tulips showing unusual green pigmentation in their floral parts. In ordinary flowers, petals develop their characteristic colors while losing much of the chlorophyll associated with leaves. In Viridiflora tulips, portions of the petals retain chlorophyll, producing the characteristic green markings.

In other words, part of the petal behaves—at least in its pigmentation—a little more like a leaf.

What might once have been regarded as an oddity became something worth preserving and propagating.

Gardeners have always had a weakness for botanical oddities. Fortunately, occasionally one of them is beautiful.

Where Does ‘Spring Green’ Come From?

‘Spring Green’ itself is a cultivated Dutch garden tulip, not a species collected from the wild. Its immediate origin therefore belongs to the Dutch bulb-growing industry rather than to a particular mountainside in Asia.

Its deeper ancestry, however, ultimately leads eastward.

The wild ancestors of our garden tulips are principally associated with Central Asia and adjoining regions, particularly the mountainous country extending through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and surrounding areas.

Tulips evolved in climates characterized by cold winters, moist springs and comparatively dry summers.

That ancestry still governs how modern tulips behave in our gardens.

They enjoy moisture while actively growing in spring, but dormant bulbs generally fare poorly in persistently wet summer soil.

A Late-Season Tulip

‘Spring Green’ is a late-flowering tulip, generally blooming in late April into May depending upon climate.

This is one of its great virtues.

Early tulips can sometimes seem painfully brief. They flower gloriously, a spell of warm weather arrives, and suddenly the performance is over.

Viridiflora tulips help extend the season.

By combining early, midseason and late tulips, gardeners can maintain flowers over a considerably longer period. ‘Spring Green’ makes an especially elegant finale.

Flowers That Last

Viridiflora tulips are also known for unusually long-lasting flowers.

The blooms often remain attractive for an extended period, both in the garden and when cut for arrangements.

‘Spring Green’ grows approximately 18 to 20 inches tall, producing strong stems capable of carrying its substantial flowers.

That combination of moderate height, sturdy stems and long-lasting bloom makes it considerably more useful than its unusual coloration alone would suggest.

This isn't merely a novelty tulip.

It is a very good garden tulip that happens to be unusual.

How to Use ‘Spring Green’ in the Landscape

Perhaps the greatest virtue of ‘Spring Green’ is its versatility.

Green and white are already present almost everywhere in a garden. Consequently, ‘Spring Green’ rarely fights with its surroundings.

Instead, it tends to connect other colors.

It can be used in formal beds, perennial borders, cottage gardens, cutting gardens and containers. It is particularly effective where its unusual flowers can be viewed fairly closely.

Plant it near a walkway and people will notice that something is different.

From a distance they see elegant ivory tulips.

Up close they discover the green.

Pair It With White

For an exceptionally clean planting, combine ‘Spring Green’ with pure white tulips.

The green-striped flowers provide just enough variation to prevent an all-white planting from becoming monotonous.

White daffodils can serve the same purpose.

This combination works particularly well around traditional architecture, stone walls, brick walks and formal garden spaces.

It is quiet without being dull.

Pair It With Purple

One of the finest companions for ‘Spring Green’ is deep purple.

The contrast is magnificent.

A dark purple tulip—something in the plum, aubergine or near-black range—provides visual weight, while ‘Spring Green’ brings light and freshness.

The green markings serve almost as a bridge between the dark flowers and surrounding foliage.

This is one of those combinations that looks carefully designed even when the gardener has done little more than choose two good tulips.

Pink Works Beautifully, Too

Soft rose, blush and pale pink tulips make excellent companions.

The effect is gentler than purple and particularly appropriate for cottage gardens.

A planting of white, green and pale pink has an almost antique quality, especially among old roses, peonies and traditional perennials.

For something stronger, use deep rose or burgundy.

‘Spring Green’ can take it.

Try It With Black Tulips

For a thoroughly dramatic combination, pair ‘Spring Green’ with one of the nearly black tulips.

The contrast between creamy white and deep maroon-black is striking, while the green stripe keeps the combination from looking too severe.

A broad drift alternating dark tulips with ‘Spring Green’ can be spectacular in a formal bed.

Sometimes restraint and drama can occupy the same garden.

An Excellent Tulip for Containers

‘Spring Green’ is particularly well suited to large pots and containers.

Its moderate height prevents it from becoming top-heavy, and its unusual flowers can be appreciated at close range.

For a simple container, plant the bulbs densely and let ‘Spring Green’ stand alone.

For something more elaborate, underplant them with white violas, pale pansies or other low spring flowers.

A dark container—charcoal, aged terracotta or black—can provide particularly handsome contrast with the pale flowers.

Use It Among Perennials

Like all tulips, ‘Spring Green’ eventually leaves behind declining foliage.

Don't cut it off prematurely.

The leaves need to continue photosynthesizing after flowering so the bulb can store energy.

Instead, plant the bulbs among perennials that emerge as the tulips finish.

Hardy geraniums, peonies, hostas where conditions are appropriate, and other spring-growing perennials can gradually conceal the yellowing tulip foliage.

By early summer, there need be little evidence that the tulips were ever there.

Until next spring.

Superb for Cutting

‘Spring Green’ is also an outstanding cut flower.

The long stems, durable flowers and green-and-white coloration make it particularly useful in arrangements.

Unlike strongly colored tulips, it doesn't dictate the entire palette of a bouquet. It can accompany pink, purple, burgundy, yellow or white flowers and still look perfectly at home.

A vase containing nothing but ‘Spring Green’ is also remarkably elegant.

Sometimes simplicity wins.

Can ‘Spring Green’ Come Back?

Viridiflora tulips are sometimes reported to return more reliably than some other highly bred tulip classes, although expectations should remain reasonable.

Tulips are not daffodils.

For the best chance of repeat flowering, plant the bulbs in full sun and fertile, sharply drained soil. After flowering, remove the spent flower heads but leave the stems and foliage until they have yellowed naturally.

Summer drainage is especially important.

Remember the ancestral climate of tulips: winter cold, spring moisture and a relatively dry summer dormancy.

Hot, soggy soil is not a recipe for a long and prosperous tulip dynasty.

Plant in Groups

As with most tulips, ‘Spring Green’ becomes much more effective when planted generously.

Ten bulbs make a nice group.

Twenty-five begin to make a statement.

Fifty or more can form a broad ivory-and-green ribbon through a border.

Because the coloration is restrained, large plantings don't become overwhelming. In fact, this is one tulip that becomes increasingly elegant as the number of bulbs increases.

A Tulip Unlike Most Others

‘Spring Green’ succeeds because it occupies a curious middle ground.

It is unusual without being bizarre.

It is colorful without being loud.

It is sophisticated without requiring a sophisticated garden.

Its creamy-white petals streaked with living green seem perfectly suited to the season in which it flowers—a time when the entire garden is exchanging the dull colors of winter for the fresh green of another year.

Introduced in 1969, ‘Spring Green’ has remained popular for more than half a century. That is no small achievement in a bulb trade constantly introducing something new.

Some tulips shout for attention.

‘Spring Green’ merely stands there looking elegant—and somehow gets noticed anyway.

Return to GoGardenNow.com.