Tulipa Albocaerula Oculata Group

Tulipa Albocaerulea Oculata Group is a very small variety of great beauty. It is the only tulip to have an authentic blue hue. It has milky white star-shaped flowers with a large steel-blue heart adorned with purple stamens in the March sun. These flowers exude a unique fragrance. The leaves appear in autumn in mild climates and remain through winter. It is a very robust plant originating from Turkey and Iran, adapted to poor terrain and arid conditions, which naturalises easily.

Tulipa Albocaerulea Oculata Group belongs to the lily family. It is a particular form of Tulipa humilis whose origins are lost between the Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and as far as northern Russia. Tulipa humilis has an extremely variable appearance depending on its origin. This selection has several rounded flowers at the end of a short floral stem,  not exceeding 10 cm (4in), with 3 pointed sepals identical to the 3 petals. The corolla, which seems to be pressed to the ground, opens widely in the sun, in a star shape, exhaling a subtle, quite indefinable sweet and peppery fragrance. The bulbs are small, 3 to 4 cm (1 to 2in) in diameter. This plant has dark greenish-blue, relatively narrow leaves, sometimes almost rolled up and 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6in) long.

Tulipa 'Albocaerulea Oculata group' is a little gem, but also a reliable and faithful plant if you give it the conditions it prefers: dry soil in summer and cold and rather dry winters. It will naturally fit in a rockery, on a well-drained path edge, or on a somewhat wild slope. Far removed from the large calyxes of its Dutch relatives, its stars are close to the ground and enliven the flower beds in early spring, with crocuses with which they are sometimes confused. It adapts well to growing in pots or containers, which will allow you to enjoy its fresh and sculptural flowers up close, as well as its strange fragrance.  

Botanical tulips, and very similar tulips, like this selection, do not degenerate over time, they naturalise and can remain in place for several years without special care and thrive in borders and rockeries. To create colourful compositions, they can be associated with various small bulbs: Ipheion uniflorum, Anemone blanda, Cyclamen coum, Erythronium pagoda, Leucojum vernum…