Tulipa Corsage

The Griegii Corsage Tulip is a dwarf variety, with flowers ranging from antique pink to orange-pink, with yellow-edged petals and a bronze base. It has a large flower in April. Not only is this flower beautiful, but it is also fragrant and its beautiful foliage is marbled with purple and edged with pink. It performs well in flowerbeds and creates patches of colour in rock gardens and planters. It proves to be robust and reliable, resistant to drought, and low-maintenance, returning each year.

Tulipa Corsage belongs to the Liliaceae family. The Tulipa greigii species was the first to be cultivated from wild bulbs, after being brought back from Uzbekistan to Germany in 1871. It is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran. It has given rise to numerous cultivars including 'Corsage'. This small tulip will not exceed 25 cm (10in) high when in bloom. Its greyish- green foliage is fairly wide, marked with brown spots and edged with pink. The flowers appear in April, earlier or later depending on the climate. They are an indefinable pink, antique or salmon, and open very wide to reveal an orange-tinted heart. At full bloom, the edges of the petals are infused with yellow. The base of the petals is warmed by a bronze hue. They open in the sun and close when it goes in.

Botanical tulips do not degenerate over time like large-flowered tulips. They naturalise and can remain in place for several years without special maintenance, thriving in borders and rock gardens. To create colourful scenes, they can be paired with various small bulbs: Crocus, Allium moly, Ipheion uniflorum, Anemone blanda, small-flowered Narcissus, Muscari, Puschkinia, Cyclamen coum, Erythronium pagoda, Leucojum vernum, snowdrops, Scilla sibirica, etc. These tulips are unmatched for bringing spring colour to pots or sunny gardens.

Tulip species are found in most of the Old World, from Western Europe to China and Japan, including Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and Central Asia. Their distribution also includes North Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The centre of diversity for the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan.

There are various wild species, many of which are endangered. These are either large tulips originally from cultivated areas, the most well-known being the Agen Tulip (Tulipa agenensis), or small tulips found in wooded areas or among rocks in the mountains. In cultivation, these are called " botanical tulips ", and one of the most common is the Wild Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris), which often used to grow sheltered by vines and whose subspecies australis is known as the Southern Tulip.