Tulipa Engadin

Tulipa 'Engadin' Single Tulip is a dwarf variety, offering carmine red flowers with hints of orange, and petals tinged with golden yellow when fully open. It opens up into a wide corolla under the sun and closes in the evening. IIts flowers truly set its beautiful grey-green foliage on fire with marbled burgundy red in April. It performs well in flower beds and easily creates a dazzling display in rockeries and containers. It proves to be robust and faithful, resistant to drought, low-maintenance and comes back every year.

The 'Engadin' greigii Botanical Tulip belongs to the lily family. The species Tulipa greigii was the first to be cultivated from wild bulbs, after being brought from Uzbekistan to Germany in 1871. It is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran. It has given rise to numerous cultivars, including 'Engadin'. This small tulip will not exceed 25 cm (10in) high when in bloom. Its foliage is greyish green, fairly wide, and marked with burgundy purple spots. The flowers appear in April, earlier or later depending on the climate. Mostly red at first, its petals appear golden yellow with a fiery red mid-stripe when fully open. The corollas open widely to reveal an orange-yellow heart veined with carmine. The base of the petals is warmed by a bronze hue. They bloom under the sun and close when it hides.

Botanical tulips do not degenerate over time like large-flowered tulips. They will naturalise and can remain in place for several years without any special maintenance, thriving in borders and rockeries. To create colourful scenes, they can be paired with various small bulb plants: Crocus, Allium moly, small-flowered Daffodils, Puschkinia... These tulips are unparalleled in bringing the colours of spring to pots or sunny gardens.