Tulips - Tulip Categories & Species
The tulip genus offers literally thousands of varieties, with more being created all the time. Yet all this complexity can be boiled down into 15 official divisions. But even that number is often reduced into a few simple categories by considering such simple things as bloom time.
One way to arrange a garden is by bloom time, the approximate week or month when flowers can be expected to blossom. By staging them out, gardeners can enjoy the colors and shapes throughout a much longer period of the year. Tulips make that task fairly easy to perform, since they conveniently divide into early, mid-season and late flowering groups.
Early
Single Early tulips, as they're called, have six petals and tend to bloom between late March to early April. In USDA Zones 3 through 8, which have climates best suited for growing them, they will poke their heads up above the ground as soon as snows disappear or early morning temperatures become less frosty.
Very soon they will produce stalks of anywhere from ten to 18 inches high. Buds will open and display a variety of colored flowers, including pink, yellow, orange, red, white and purple.
Another sub-category called Double Early have more than the standard six petals and don't grow so high, reaching only between ten to 12 inches around the same time as Single Early tulips bloom. They come in fewer colors, such as white, pink, yellow, orange or red but they are very sturdy and last a long time.
Some typical species are Beauty Queen, Bellona, General de Wet, Christmas Marvel, Bel Air, Monte Carlo, Carnival de Nice and Mr. Van der Hoef.
Mid-Season
As the name suggests, Mid-Season tulips bloom slightly later than Earlies, around late April to early May in Zones 3 through 7. Some, such as Darwin tulips, will grow as high as 30 inches and produce flowers that are six inches across. Before the flowers open they are somewhat pyramid shaped.
Colors of Mid-Season tulips range from pink, yellow, orange, red and even black to a variety of speckled and striped varieties. They make a good choice for gardeners looking to plant a tulip perennial, no easy task with many species of the genus.
Triumph Tulips are a very popular choice and form the largest division. They come in no end of possible colors and will bloom about a week and a half before Darwins, reaching from between ten to 16 inches high.
A few sample species are Big Chief, Burning Heart, Daydream, Golden Oxford, Arabian Mystery, Barcelona, Calgary, Negrita, Peer Gynt and Zurel.
Late Season
Like Earlies, Late Season tulips come in two classes - Single and Double. Often known as Mayflowering types, the name gives away the bloom time.
By the time Single Late tulips blossom, stalks may have reached between 18 inches and 30 inches high. The flowers are oval-shaped and range across white, pink, yellow, purple and black. They thrive best in Zones 3 through 7.
Double Late tulips are also known as Peony-flowered, since they resemble somewhat that other genus. They reach about 16 inches high by the time they bloom in late May. The blooms will generally then last until early to mid-summer.
Double Late colors may be anything from pink to peach, yellow to red, mauve to deep purple. The blooms tend to be somewhat heavy so the stalks may need some assistance from stakes. Try to plant out of open areas to reduce wind.
A few sample species are Avignon, Blushing Beauty, Sorbet, Union Jack, Angelique, Maywonder, Uncle Tom and Yellow Tacoma.
Choose the type of tulip that suits your taste, or plant a variety in order to have blooms at different parts of the season. There are so many species of tulip you can never go wrong.
