Bay area Tulipa
Jane McGary (Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:53:19 PDT)

Although I don't garden in the SF Bay area, I am from there and have
family members still in central California, with gardens. In addition
to Tulipa clusiana, you could try any of the tulips from Crete.
Tulipa bakeri is one, and the other two (all three are lumped by some
botanists although they are very different in appearance to us
gardeners) are T. cretica and T. saxatilis. Bakeri (as a clone,
called I think 'Violet Beauty' or some such typical Dutch name) and
saxatilis are available from commercial sources if you want to risk
bringing in diseases; T. cretica is easily and quickly grown from
seed. I grow it in my unheated bulb house and have photographed it
right next to the sea in Crete.

Tulipa hageri, mentioned by Max, is not the same as T. bakeri. I'm
not sure whether it is still a recognized species, but some I bought
from a Dutch nursery have persisted for many years in my former
garden, which experiences fairly cold winters. It is red with
brownish tint on the outer tepals. T. saxatilis (pale pink) was also
permanent there. I was out there the other day and saw 'Lilliput' in
flower; it is claimed to be a selection of T. humilis.

There are also some low-elevation tulips from the Middle East that
you could try if you could acquire seed. Most of the tulips I've
grown from seed take about 5 years from sowing to flowering
(germination occurs the first year). I'm growing about 30 species
from seed this year and hope to see what they look like eventually.
In flower here now are several collections from western Iran made by
the Archibalds and sent out without species identification. I'm
pretty sure one is T. montana, a lovely pure red that increases fast.
There is also a tall, slender yellow one that has the right color and
range for T. mucronata, but I don't see why my plants would be
noticed as "mucronate." There is a very big red one from a Halda
collection many years ago that I can't identify either. In a few days
there will be some "Neotulips" from the Balkans and Italy, which are
thought to be escapes from ancient introductions; one, T. rhodopea,
is a large, showy deep rose. I don't know what the winter chill
requirements for these species are, though.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

At 08:11 AM 4/11/2013, you wrote: