- Wild Flowered Tulip or Tarda Tulip
“…Pixy women, pixy men,
Seek my tulips from the glen;
Midnight come, they may be heard
Singing sweet as any bird,
Singing their wee babes to rest
In the tulips they love best!”
By Maud Keary (1914)
The tulip has been a favorite spring bulb for centuries. They were first exported from the Turkish Empire into China and Mongolia, eventually reaching the Netherlands several centuries ago. This sweet scented flower has been cultivated there since approximately 1590. The Tarda Tulip is a species bulb and the only species bulb ever honored with the title of ‘Flower of the Year’ in Holland in 1997.
It flowers later than the hybrid tulip, often with multiple flowers from each bulb, frequently at the same time. Most flowers are white with a sticking yellow center, making the garden a splash of bright, cheerful color.
Herbe Rowe 