Growing Guide
 
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Tulip, Lily-Flowered cultivars

Spring-Flowering Bulb

Tulipa sp. lily flowered cultivars
Liliaceae Family

Lily-Flowered Tulips have showy, elongated goblet-shaped blooms with petals tapering to thin points. They may be a single color, or vividly marked with stripes, flames, feathers, or colored margins.

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Site Characteristics
Sunlight:
  • full sun

Soil conditions:

  • requires well-drained soil

Hardiness zones:

  • 4 to 7

Special locations:

  • outdoor containers
  • rock gardens
  • indoors as a houseplant - Can be forced inside for winter bloom.
Plant Traits

Lifecycle: perennial

Ease-of-care: easy

Height: 1.25 to 2 feet

Spread: 0.25 to 0.5 feet

Bloom time: late spring

Flower color:

  • red
  • orange
  • yellow
  • green
  • indigo
  • violet
  • white
  • pink

Foliage color:

  • light green
  • medium green

Foliage texture: medium

Shape: upright

Shape in flower: flower stalks with flowers as cups

Blooms borne on upright flower stems

Special Considerations
Special characteristics:
  • non-aggressive
  • non-invasive
  • not native to North America - Product of horticultural selection.
Special uses:
  • cut flowers
Growing Information
How to plant:

Propagate by division or separation - Plant the bulbs 5" beneath the soil surface in the fall. After the leaves have died back following flowering, dig up the bulbs and allow them to mature in a warm, dry location. In the fall, replant large bulbs, and place the smaller bulbs in a starting bed to mature. When enlarged, plant them in the garden.

Maintenance and care:
Remove faded flowers, and do not remove the foliage until it has yellowed and begun to die back (up to 6 weeks).

These tulips do not perform well in Zones 7 to 9. To grow in these Zones, purchase cold-treated bulbs and grow as annuals. A few cultivars are suited to perennial warmer growth.

More growing information: How to Grow Bulbs

Pests:
Slugs and snails
Aphids

Diseases:
Bulb rot
Root rot
Gray mold
Nematodes
Varieties
‘Aladdin’: 1 ½’ tall plants with bright red flowers with bright yellow margins.

‘Ballade’: 1 ¼’ tall plants with bright reddish pink blooms with white margins. The petals have yellow basal marks on their inside surfaces.

‘Ballerina’: 1 ½’ to 1 ¾’ tall plants with orange margined pale yellow blooms marked with red on the outside. The insides are orange-red marked with orange feathering.

‘Burgundy’: 1 ½’ tall, late-blooming plants with very dark wine-colored blooms.

‘China Pink’: 1 ¼’ tall plants with pink blooms, marked with white on the inside bases.

‘Macarena’: nearly 2’ tall, late-blooming plants with cream-colored blooms flamed with butter yellow, and speckled with red.

‘Mariette’: 1 ¼’ tall, late-blooming plants with deep rosy-pink blooms, with white inner bases.

‘Marilyn’: 1 ½’ tall, late-blooming plants with white blooms thinly flamed with rosy-purple. The insides of the petals are white with red flames and white bases.

‘Maytime’: 1’ tall, late-blooming plants with violet-rose blooms. The bases are yellow rimmed with white.

‘Queen of Sheba’: 1 ¼’ tall plants with orange margined rust colored blooms.

‘West Point’: 1’ to 1 ¼’ tall, late-blooming plants with pale yellow blooms.

‘William and Mary’: 1 ½’ tall, late-blooming plants with pale yellow blooms flushed with peach-rose, especially at the margins.