Tulipa x kaufmanniana Hope - Water lily tulip

The early, bright and delicately coloured Kaufmanniana Tulip ‘Hope’ illuminates the first days of spring with its star-shaped, ivory flowers with pink reverses which open widely under the sun. With its low habit and sturdy stems, it adapts equally well to borders, rockeries, and decorative pots. Derived from a very hardy botanical species, it is an excellent candidate for naturalising settings. Undemanding, it nevertheless dislikes waterlogged conditions. Its flowering from March makes it a precious jewel to open the garden season.

The Tulip or Tulipa kaufmanniana ‘Hope’ belongs to the Liliaceae family and is part of the wildTulipa kaufmanniana species, also called Waterlily Tulip or Kaufmann's Tulip, native to the rocky regions of Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in subalpine short grass meadows and stony slopes. This cultivar reproduces the typical characteristics of the Kaufmanniana group: a low, compact habit, rapid spring growth, and vegetation rarely exceeding 25 cm. In the ground, it reaches 15–30 cm in height with a spread of 10–15 cm. Spring growth is fairly rapid, with young shoots emerging from February to March for full flowering in April, without any notable production of bulblets or suckers; however, keeping it in a pot encourages the recovery of bulblets over several years. The flowers in a widely star-shaped cup of 6–8 cm in diameter open fully in the sun, revealing an ivory exterior streaked with pink while the interior shows a soft yellow spot reminiscent of a central eye; they are broad, often positioned horizontally, with no notable fragrance. The early flowering extends from February to April, sometimes prolonged into May depending on conditions and regions. The deciduous, lanceolate, and sometimes slightly variegated foliage consists of 3 to 5 robust, bluish-green or streaked with purple leaves measuring about 10–20 cm long and 2–4 cm wide, contributing to the ornamental after-flowering attraction. The short and cylindrical stems remain sturdy and glabrous, easy to conceal in beds. The root system consists of a fleshy, spherical bulb 4–5 cm in diameter, suited to well-drained and poorly resistant soil to excess moisture. The kaufmanniana tulip was one of the first species to be integrated into European alpine gardens in the 19th century, often depicted on Soviet stamps in the 1960s, celebrating its adaptation to montane hardiness.

At the beginning of spring, the ‘Hope’ tulip rises discreetly like a soft musical note, edged with pink and bathed in ivory. It finds its place in sunny rockeries, on the edge of a lawn or nestled in a terracotta pot where the morning sun caresses its star-shaped open petals. Paired with dwarf daffodils ‘Tête-à-Tête’, azure grape hyacinths or ‘Hearts Delight’ tulips, it creates a sense of dazzling freshness.