tiptoe through the tulips

Pretty "species tulips" are tough enough to survive—and thrive—in Colorado.

By Lauren Springer Ogden

When tulips come to mind, many people imagine acres of big, bold, egg-shaped blooms in Holland or bright public plantings in East Coast and European cities. Unfortunately, these stately tulips don’t live long in Paris, Boston or even Holland—and they definitely can’t make it in Colorado.

The forebears of large hybrid tulips are thrifty, charismatic little species that inhabit rocky hillsides, steppes and high mountains in the Mediterranean region, the Near East and Central Asia. These regions have climates with many challenges shared by Colorado. Luckily for gardeners, the sassy, smaller tulips common to those regions not only persist in Colorado, they love it here. And they’ll increase prolifically over the years with virtually no care.

Their requirements are minimal: Give them unadulterated Colorado soil, as they prefer the mineral-rich, humus-poor dirt found in much of the interior West. Make sure they have lots of sunlight and water them very sparingly, especially once they go dormant in summer. The bulbs are benevolently small, so they only need to be planted about 4 inches deep in autumn.

Since species tulips are all spring bloomers, if you plant a wide variety you can enjoy flowers from early March through May. The color range includes everything but blue. Some have cup-shaped, plump flowers; others look more like stars. Many have contrasting colors in the flowers’ centers, while others sport streaked bicolored petals, called “tepals” in official tulip lingo. A lot have narrow, grassy foliage—a bonus when they go dormant, compared to the large foliage of bigger bulbs that turns messy and ugly as it withers. Some species tulips’ foliage has fascinating, almost reptilian maroon mottling, striping and checking; others have chalky, blue-gray leaves with wavy margins. Heights range from squat 3- to 4-inch cuties to 10- to 15-inch plants with a wildflower-like grace.

You can combine them with other small, tough spring bulbs like grape hyacinths (Muscari sp.), Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) or icy-blue striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica). Or intermingle them with low-growing evergreen foliage, such as creeping veronicas, thymes or dwarf sedums. You can also grow them as an early surprise in drought-tolerant buffalo grass.

Best Bets

Here are a few of my favorites that fare well in Front Range gardens. Waterlily tulip (Tulipa kaufmanniana) is an early bloomer with large, waterlily-like flowers that open wide on sunny days and close at night or in cold, cloudy weather. The flower’s inside is often a different color than the outside, giving the plant two personalities, depending on whether the blossoms are open or closed. The foliage is blue-green and often sports purple markings. Several named selections are available in yellow-red, cream-rose or orange-red.

Lady tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. chrysantha) is a daintier, later-blooming tulip. It’s also bicolored, typically red on the outside and yellow inside, but pale yellow-rose and white-cerise selections are also available. It’s taller, but much narrower in all aspects, than the waterlily tulip. The foliage is almost grass-like, perfect for intermingling with small grasses that green early in spring, like blue sheep’s fescue (Festuca glauca), or Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis) and June grass (Koeleria macrantha).
An entirely different look happens when you plant the pink-, magenta- and white-flowered selections of diminutive crocus tulip (Tulipa humilis). This starry-flowered species has contrasting eyes of yellow, blue-gray, black or olive green, and bees adore it. It blooms quite early in tulip season and has very narrow foliage, making it ideal for a buffalo grass lawn or in low evergreen ground covers like silver pussy-toes (Antennaria parvifolia).

Were I only allowed one tulip in my garden (an awful thought!), it would be varieties of Tulipa batalinii, including ‘Apricot Jewel’, ‘Yellow Jewel’, ‘Bright Gem’, ‘Red Gem’ and ‘Bronze Charm’. This adorable little plant comes in pale yellow, soft peach or red variants. The relatively late-blooming flowers are plump and lightly fragrant of honey, and the foliage is a lovely, wavy-edged gray-blue. I grow it in all sorts of places: with the blue flowers of wooly veronica (Veronica pectinata); between the emerging yellow and cream foliage of striped bearded iris (Iris pallida ‘Aurea Variegata’); and throughout the short grasses of our wild steppe lawn.

When you grow species tulips, one thing can come between you and a long, happy relationship with these flowers: a hungry animal. Rodents, rabbits and deer love tulips of all kinds. If you have trouble with any of these garden interlopers, you’ll have to resort to fencing, repellents, cats and other methods. Occasional deer strolling through our garden decapitated many of our tulips the first couple of springs. I’ve learned from experience that our local herd is most hungry and eager to visit gardens at tulip time, so now we put repellent around the tulip foliage as it emerges from the ground in the spring.

This spring, visit nurseries and gardens to get a firsthand glimpse of these tulips. Then put together a bulb wish list in anticipation of fall planting. Your new species tulips will be well worth the effort and give you delightful springs for years to come.

Lauren Springer Ogden goes through tulip mania each fall, when she and her husband plant close to 1,000 species tulips in their jam-packed garden. For more information on their design services, visit www.plantdrivendesign.com.

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