I agree that not a single tulip is free of virus. However that is true for most if not all plants of any kind and includes all animals too. All those variegated or Rembrandt tulips are not caused by virus ( I did not say that they are without virus) Those broken tulips that were in the old days favoured are not grown anymore with the exception maybe, I am not sure, of Hortus bulborum were they keep all those old cultivars. In that case I assume they send them with a warning. People always walk trough the fields to remove any sick tulip because the virus stunts the grow. Ben J.M.Zonneveld Nationaal Herbarium Nederland POBox 9514 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands telf 071 5274738 E-mail: Zonneveld@NHN.Leidenuniv.nl