How to choose your tulip varieties

There are a multitude of different tulip shapes, almost as many as their colors. Some varieties have one row of petals, others two. There are tulips with fringed petals, some are parrot tulips with serrated petals, some are lily-flowered tulips, and some are French tulips. And so on!

Our first criterion for selecting varieties, as with everything we do, is color. Second, shape. For us; the funkier, the better. So we grow a lot of “double,” “parrot,” and “fringed” tulips. We particularly like double tulips, those with several rows of petals. We are often told that these tulips look like small peonies!

Fringed Tulip: Sensual Touch , Double Tulip: Double Gudoshnik , Parrot Tulip: Apricot Parrot

Flowering periods: early, mid-spring and late

The tulip blooming period lasts several weeks. Different tulip varieties are categorized into three flowering periods in spring: early, mid-spring (or normal), and late.

Early flowering (early spring)

The first category is called “ early blooming” . For outdoor planting in zone 5b (our hardiness zone here in Frelighsburg, Quebec), tulips in this category will be the first to bloom, around the first week of May . In this flowering category, you will find the Apricot Parrot and Columbus varieties, among others .

Mid-spring flowering

Then, the varieties that fall into the “ mid-spring flowering” (or MID in English) category, will flower a little later than the first ones, around the 2nd week of May . Queensland and Perth tulips fall into this category.

Late flowering (late spring)

Finally, tulips that fall into the last category, called “ late bloomers ,” will bloom last, around the last week of May . Dream Touch and Green Star are among the varieties that will bloom a little later.

Choosing tulip varieties from each of these three categories ensures that you can harvest tulips over a period of several weeks. This allows you to enjoy the tulip season much longer and experiment with different varieties that bloom at different times.

When purchasing your tulip varieties, be sure to check their blooming period, this will allow you to make choices based on your preferred blooming times.

The size of the stems

Also, when shopping for bulbs or plants in general, it's really important and practical (!) to check the size or height of the plants. Tulips come in several different heights, which are always described on the packaging when purchasing.

When we shop for bulbs for the farm, for example, we only favor varieties with the longest stems, because this is an essential criterion for being able to put them in bouquets. We have established over the years that a minimum of 18” is required for us for varieties that we grow outdoors. For varieties that we grow in tunnels or greenhouses, we plan for a minimum of 16”, since they will stretch a little more than outdoors (crops under plastic tend to stretch more than those grown in the field).

Unique varieties

We particularly love dramatic, unusual, and refined tulips, which is why we grow almost exclusively specialty tulips on the farm, which are hard to find elsewhere in Quebec. We believe they have an extra finesse that we love.

The tulip industry is generally still very conventional and standardized, with the same classic, brightly colored varieties found almost everywhere in nurseries. At Floramama, we love testing and finding lesser-known varieties, so we're really excited to be able to increase the offer of specialty tulip bulbs on the online store this year. Even though we don't have the infrastructure (time, money, resources, tools) to grow our own bulbs on the farm, we're on a mission to make unique and rare tulip varieties more accessible in Quebec. We're really excited about the idea of ​​even more specialty tulips making their way to your gardens!

Super Parrot Tulip, Queensland Tulip and Copper Image Tulip