Tulipa greigii Quebec

The 'Quebec' Greigii Botanical Tulip is a dwarf variety, offering pastel flowers delicately streaked with pink and mauve on a white background, from the month of March. It shows excellent performance in flower beds and allows for the creation of colourful spots at the end of winter, in association with botanical narcissus or muscari. It proves to be robust and faithful, resistant to drought, not demanding. It returns each year, each time more numerous, announcing the long-awaited return of spring in flower beds or sunny rockeries.

The 'Quebec' Greigii Botanical Tulip belongs to the Liliaceae family. The Tulipa greigii species was the first to be cultivated from wild bulbs, which were brought back from Uzbekistan to Germany in 1871. It is actually native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran. It has given rise to numerous cultivars including 'Quebec'. This small tulip will not exceed 15 cm (6in) in height when in flower. Its foliage is bright green, quite wide, marked with slight darker marbling. The flowers appear in March, more or less early depending on the climate. They are bi-coloured, streaked with fresh pink and washed with mauve in the centre on a white background. The base of the petals is warmed by a yellow shade. They bloom in the sun and close up when it hides.

Botanical tulips do not degenerate over time like large-flowered tulips, selected for over 200 years for cut flowers and not for their perennial nature. They naturalise easily and can stay in place for several years without special maintenance. They thrive in borders and rockeries, in very well-drained soil. To create colourful scenes, they can be associated with various small bulb plants: Crocus, Allium moly, Ipheion uniflorum, Anemone blanda, small-flowered daffodils, Muscari, Puschkinia, Cyclamen coum, Erythronium pagoda, Leucojum vernum, snowdrops, Scilla sibirica etc. These tulips are unrivaled for bringing the colour of spring to pots or sunny gardens.