tulipa saxatilis
Jane McGary (Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:01:38 PDT)

I've read that Tulipa saxatilis 'Lilac Wonder' is a selection of the
population also known as T. bakeri. There are three closely related
tulips in Crete, which grow in somewhat different habitats, and some
botanists place them all in T. saxatilis. The T. bakeri ones (largest
and darkest flowers) grow in cultivated upland pasture, the T.
saxatilis ones on rocky mounds, and the T. cretica ones in crevices
in cliffs and an odd place that reminded me of a lava flow.
"Saxatilis" was the best performer in my previous garden, and
"cretica" is the best one in the bulb house.

I just ordered a lot of wild-collected tulip seeds from Kurt
Vickery's seed list and look forward to growing them. I have a spot
that is crying out for species tulips, but I don't want to introduce
virus-infected stock into the new garden, so will resign myself to
waiting 5 years or so for flowers.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

At 12:43 PM 8/24/2012, you wrote: