Sunday 17 February 2013

Multiflowering Tulips

This is not one of the official tulip classifications. However, many gardening catalogs will provide a section on Multiflowering Tulips, because these tulips are so popular. These are tulips that produce three to seven blossoms per bulb. The main stem of the plant branches into several smaller secondary stems, each of which produces a blossom. Many of the Single Late Tulips have multiflowering varieties, as do the Greigii Tulips, some of the Triumph Tulips, and some of the Botanical Species Tulips. Multiflowering Tulips have the characteristics of the class that they derive from. Thus, it should be clear that Multiflowering Tulips will have a wide variety of characteristics, in terms of flowering time and height.
Because you need so few of them to make a bouquet, these tulips are fantastic cut flowers. They also look wonderful in flower beds and borders.

Flowering time:	variable
Plant height:	variable
Minimum planting depth:	6" (15 cm), unless otherwise noted
Hardiness zones:	normally suitable for zones 3 - 8
Colours:	variable
Shape/form:	3 - 7 blooms per bulb bloom on primary stem is largest, while those on secondary stems are somewhat smaller
Alternate names:	Bouquet Tulips, Bunch Flowering Tulips
Notes:	outstanding as cut flowers; good for beds and borders
Example varieties:	Colour Spectacle (yellow flamed with red, 18 - 20" (46-50 cm) tall, late spring flowering) Georgette (yellow edged with red, 18" (46 cm) tall, late spring flowering, Single Late Tulip) Happy Family (deep rose, 20" (50 cm) tall, mid-spring flowering, Triumph Tulip) Modern Style (white with flames & blotches of purple, 20" (50 cm) tall, late spring flowering) Orange Bouquet (orange, 18 - 20" (46 - 50 cm) tall, late spring flowering, Single Late Tulip) Praestans Fusilier (vermillion red, 8 - 10" (20 - 25 cm) tall, plant 4" (10 cm) deep, early spring flowering, Botanical Species Tulip) Quebec (outside: red and green, inside: light green & red with yellow base; mottled leaves, 14" (36 cm) tall, mid-spring flowering, Greigii Tulip) Sylvia Warder (scarlet and creamy yellow, 14" (36 cm) tall, early spring flowering) Toronto (red, 10 -12" (25 - 30 cm) tall, mid-spring flowering, Greigii Tulip) Weisse Berliner (white flamed with pale yellow, 14 - 18" (36 - 46 cm) tall, early to mid-spring flowering) White Bouquet (white, otherwise same as Orange Bouquet)