Tulipa sylvestris - Botanical Tulip

The Tulipa sylvestris, also known as the Wood Tulip, is a European botanical species that is very charming: it offers elegant perfumed corollas with pointed petals of a bright yellow, doubled with green, which blend perfectly with all other small spring bulbs. It is a prolific and easy plant to grow in many regions. It naturalises and will form large radiant colonies from the first spring days.

Tulipa sylvestris is a wild tulip originating from a vast area ranging from southern Europe to eastern Europe, southern Siberia, central Asia, and western China. It is found almost everywhere in central Europe, mainly in meadows, orchards, vineyards, and along the edges of undergrowth. Like all tulips, it belongs to the lily family.

It is a herbaceous plant with a bulb, first producing linear leaves of green-blue colour, before flowering from March to May depending on the regions. The plant produces small solitary flowers, 4 cm (2in) in diameter, at the end of 12 cm (5in) tall stems, sometimes upright or slightly inclined, of golden yellow colour, very bright and perfumed. Each flower consists of 3 narrow sepals curving outward, and 3 wider petals curving inward when the corolla opens in the sun. It is this difference in the orientation of the petals that gives the corolla a particularly refined appearance. The centre of the flower is shiny black, and the petals close when the sun hides. Pollinated by insects, the flowers produce green fruits that turn brown and open when ripe to release their seeds. The foliage dries up a few weeks after flowering, marking the bulb's entry into dormancy.

Plant your Wood Tulip bulbs in groups of 20 or 30, mixed with muscaris, crocuses, chionodoxas, botanical narcissus, or anemone blanda. These beautiful and easy botanical tulips are unparalleled in embodying the long-awaited return of spring in the garden. They settle in rockeries, flower beds, and borders on a beautiful autumn day, then multiply without requiring any special care or maintenance.