Tulip Bulbs

Is there anything more glorious than seeing a beautiful bouquet of brightly hued tulips growing in your spring garden? When you first notice those colourful blooms pop up, it signals the start of the season and the end to those cold grey days. It is truly a wonderful feeling.

The original species of tulips have a limited color range of mostly reds and yellows. Today, with the newer cultivars and hybrids, you will find them in a wide palette of colours from strong bright colors to pastel shades.

Choosing a Tulip Bulb

When looking for tulip bulbs, you want to make sure they are plump and firm to the touch. Avoid any bulbs that are squishy, moldy or whose papery cover is missing. Nature has made it easy for tulips to grow. Inside the bulb is an embryo flower just waiting to begin growing.
At Glen Echo Nurseries, our bulbs usually begin to arrive in September, but wait to plant them until mid-autumn. If you buy them early, they are best stored in a paper bag and not plastic to keep them dry. They are best kept in a cool place as well like a cold cellar or garage.

Planting Tulips

Planting tulips really couldn’t be easier. Look for a sunny place – tulips will not grow well in the shade or in wet soil as they will rot. For best results, you will want to do a little soil preparation. Loosen the soil about a foot deep and add some compost or dried manure. Also, fertilizer will help the bulbs to grow. We suggest a granular fertilizer such as 5-10-5 or 5-10-10. Mix the loosened soil with the compost and fertilizer until well blended. Of course, we strongly recommend Acti-Sol Hen manure. Squirrels hate it!

Now you are ready to plant your bulbs. The rule of thumb is to dig each hole three times as deep as the tulip bulb is tall. Bulbs look best when planted in groupings. The biggest mistake a lot of new gardeners make is to plant them upside down. They will probably still grow, but it will take longer to come through the ground in spring and may be short. Set the bulb so the pointy end is facing up. Don’t worry if you get some upside down.

After the tulips bulbs are planted, you need to water them thoroughly and then cover the area with a mulch of pine bark or shredded leaves to protect them. With tulips, care and attention to detail will reward you and your garden with a glorious spring display.

Amazing Grace

Double Late Tulip is a stunning new variety with layers of petals giving a peony like appearance. The flowers start lavender pink with a hint of green on the outer petals. but change to deeper rose as the flower matures. Blooms in late spring and is long-lived in both the garden and the vase. Grows 16-18 inches tall (40-45 cm).

Amazing Parrot

This eye-catching tulip is truly 'Amazing'. Huge flowers of soft cerise-red with a warm-orange inside and edge, will stand out in every garden. What a special color! Tulip 'Amazing Parrot' is soft cerise-red with a warm-orange edge and inside. A new introduction in 2019, it will grow to a height of 16 Inches.

Amber Glow

A stunning new cultivar that simply glows! This new Triumph Tulip features a light feathering pattern on tow-toned blooms of rich red enhanced by a glowing yellow base giving it a luminous glow. Perfect for lining walkways or creating a large mass planting with plenty of style and substance.

Angel Wish

If you are wishing for soft shades in your garden this spring, this little angel is perfect. This single late variety is one of the latest white tulips to bloom in the spring. Fragrant, creamy white blooms with a subtle yellow stripe on tall stems ensure an unforgettable display of flowers.

Antoinette

An extraordinary tulip that boasts a kaleidoscopic of colour - flower opens pale yellow, white and green. It gradually turns yellow with raspberry petal edges and finally matures to deep salmon-orange with a golden-yellow base above slightly variegated foliage. A sensational showing!

Apricot Parrot

Exquisite in both colour and form, this breathtaking parrot tulip flower is heavily frilled and feathered. Orange - apricot petals with a hint of white and rose hues and an incredible dark green flame is one of the most colourful tulips we have seen. Blooms from mid to late spring.

Artist

One of the world's first viridiflora tulips and we think it is still pretty special. These distinctive flowers have fluted petals that start out carrot-orange with deep green and purple markings. As the blossoms mature, they gradually fade to dusky salmon, olive and lavender.

Blue Parrot

Blue Parrot tulips are among the most spectacular tulips out there and this remarkable, truly blue variety is no exception. The big, beautiful blooms open fully in the sunlight, revealing shades of blue that range from midnight to sky blue. Its bright violet-blue flowers, flushed bronze-purple inside, are wavy-edged and fringed like feathers. As its large flower is exposed to the sun over time,

Copper Image

A very late spring blooming tulip is worth waiting for! With very large flowers resembling a rose or peony. It is a compact plant that produces very large flowers resembling a rose or peony. A work of art in coppery apricot pink with chartreuse outer petals with a touch of gold. As a cut flower they are superb and long lasting.

Couleur Cardinal

Beloved by gardeners everywhere, this outstanding tulip is one of the oldest making a grand statement since 1845. A crimson red tulip shaded with regal shades of purple. Couleur Cardinal is a lovely short stemmed tulip that has the added benefit of a soft fragrance, ideal for windy locations. Late spring bloomer.

Cream Flag

A classic tulip shape, these large, long lasting flowers in hues of soft yellow, creamy vanilla ice cream. This mid-spring flowering tulip grows to around 50cm (20") and makes a graceful cut flower. A Triumph Tulip, it is one of many in the Flag series and does a great job for both forcing and landscaping.

Dasystemon Tarda

A most unusual mini tulip, it grows to just 6 inches tall. Flowering early, this delightful little tulip heralds the spring with 6 pointed stars in shades of cream and gold with a sweet fragrance. The white tipped petals add a little drama to this hardy perennial that can be left in site all year.

Doll's Minuet

You will want to dance when your Doll's Minuet pops up in late spring! It is one of the tallest Viridiflora tulips available and long lasting. It offers deep magenta pink colour with flashes of green and purple on the petal's outer side. Truly magnificent.

Double Crispion Sweet

A beautiful and exclusive fringed, peony-like tulip. The flower starts blooming in soft pink with white and green spots, but as it matures it will turn completely pink. This double fringed candy floss coloured tulip is an early flowering bulb.

Double Fringed Queensland

A spectacular Double Fringed Tulip, this one is worth a close up! This tulip carries rose-red petals accented with light pink ruffles and serrated edges. As this tulip matures int opens to large 5" blooms. 'Queensland' grows up to 12-14" tall and is a late spring bloomer.

Double Peony Angelique

A long-time favorite in the garden and for cut-flower displays. These popular double tulips are called peony tulips due to their large number of petals and this one does not disappoint. When fully open, it features romantic soft pink flowers edged in light pink that can reach an impressive 4" across. Growing 18" tall, they bloom in very late spring.

Double Peony Black Hero

Impressive drama! A fabulous double late peony-flowered tulip featuring large, bowl-shaped blossoms densely packed with velvety, dark maroon to mahogany petals. In the shadows, the flower can appear to be pitch black. It is a sport of award winning Queen of Night but features twice the petals. Simply spectacular.

Double Peony Cranberry Kiss

Cranberry Kiss tulips have such a dark, rich, crimson color it will add elegance to your spring garden. With the extravagant look of lush peonies, these unique double-flowered tulips are among the most luxuriant types available to gardeners especially in this deep cranberry shade. Late spring flowering that grows 16 inches high.

Double Peony Double Dolce

Enormous flowers, the colors change from creamy white to pink and purple, it has a very long blooming time and makes an excellent cut flower. Heavily scented, this late blooming tulip grows to an impressive height of 22".

Double Peony Freeman

Enormous peony-sized double blooms with serrated edged petals that are simply spectacular! they are called peony tulips named because of the double flowers that you see on peonies. Freeman are late spring flowering tulips that great for containers, landscaping and as cut flowers.

Double Peony Ice Cream

The unusual colour & form of this Double Peony Tulip really does look like an ice cream cone. Peony Shaped Tulips are admired for their large, double flowers that resemble old-fashioned peonies. The white central petals look like a fluffy mound of vanilla on top of a scoop of strawberry ice cream. When fully open, some blooms reach an impressive 4 inches across.

Double Peony Miranda

These fully double tulips have large, ruffled petals that resemble peonies featuring eye-catching double rows of flamed vibrant red petals and a delicate lemon yellow base. Flower heads can reach up to 4 inches, 10 cm across which not only adds to their allure in the garden but as cut flowers as well. These late bloomers will extend your spring flowering season.

Double Peony Negrita

This new, late-blooming tulip is a double version of the ever-popular variety Negrita. Its rich, saturated color is a blend of raspberry and blackberry with flashes of green on the outer petals. The blossoms are broad and full atop sturdy, 15" stems.

Double Peony Night Watchman

A new on the market it has large peony flowers it's a truly unique, beautiful tulip. A very interesting new addition, where every flower is different. Some will be almost completely dark brown/maroon colored, while others are heavily marked with ivory and yellow blushes. Each tulip is unique!

Double Peony Secret Perfume

The long-lasting flowerheads of this very special hybrid and their candy-sweet fragrance ae certainly one of a kind. This soft yellow tulip with its double petals looks more like a peony than a tulip. Plant in groups for a sensational blanket of colour.

Dutch Dancer

Lily-flowered tulips open up wide on sunny days and look like a six-pointed star! Spectacular rich orange colour with a flush of vermillion red combined with an elegant form make this an impressive choice. Their graceful stems are deceivingly strong and their pointed flower tips make them a real eye catcher.

Elsenberg

A fairly recent introduction, this pretty little tulip is an outstanding beauty. The large petals are a lovely deep rose and cream fading to white with a hint of green. The inner petals are predominantly pink and cream with an occasional hint of salmon. The contrasting leaves have a clear white edge and the colours develop and deepen as the flower mature.

Exotic Emperor

Large double fluffy white flowers have a delicate green and cream flame. It is a relatively new fosteriana tulip that in this case does resemble a bit of a peony tulip. A strong, reliable, sturdy stemmed tulip is an early to mid-season bloomer. This handsome tulip should be included in your spring garden.

Fire Wings

Fire Wings will light up your spring garden! Pointed, winged petals open up to a vibrant two-tone display of vibrant yellow with pronounced fire-engine red flames. This lily-flowered tulip will bloom in mid-Spring and works very well as a cut flower.

Giuseppi Verdi

An incredibly eye-catching cultivar of the Kaumanniana tulips with large golden yellow flowers with red marks inside and running over to crimson on the outside. The flowers open wide during sunny days providing an entirely different shape & colour when closed. A thrilling transformation.

Happy People

Just looking at this happy tulip will make you smile! A wonderful cream color with subtle soft yellow streaks that are staples of the Rembrandt Tulips. They also retain the classic cup shape that tulips are known and loved for. This specimen is new so you can be one of the first to sprout a few of these breathtaking blossoms.

Helmar

When it comes to tulips, form is important and Helmar boasts the classic egg-shaped that we associate with the classic tulip. Each yellow bloom features dazzling ruby-red flames shooting up the side of each supple petal. Grows to an impressive height of up to 50cm (20").

Ice Cream Banana

These ice cream tulips are so much fun! New and unique in the tulip world. Another flavor to the Ice Cream shop. Intensely sunny-yellow petals layered in a green and pink cup resembling a bowl of banana ice-cream. A sensational display in flower gardens.

Labrador

The Fringed Tulip Labrador will stand out in any garden. Stunning, heavily fringed tulip flowers are a unique reddish brown to black hue, bloom from mid to late spring. A real eyecatcher that flowers late in the season. Fringed Tulips are also known as Crispa Tulips and are perfect for cut flowers, beds and borders.

Lady van Eijk

Tulip Lady van Eijk is a tall, large flowered Darwin hybrid tulip and a dark pink version of the van Eijk tulip. Deep rose red with a hint of lilac-purple atop of strong stems which make them suitable for windy locations. They look impressive planted en masse or mixed between early flowering hardy perennial plants.

Little Beauty

A wonderful dwarf hybrid tulip with extraordinary markings. This lovely dwarf tulip features bright purple-pink flowers that open up to reveal star shaped flowers with a deep blue heart, edged with a smudged white margin in full sun. A vigorous variety that will form colorful, fragrant colonies over time.

Maureen

One of the best white tulips with beautifully formed goblet-shaped flowers that are almost pure marble white and turn slightly ivory as they mature. A late spring bloomer, Maureen was bred for enhanced size, strength and hardiness. On firm stems from 24 to 30 inches tall.

Mysterious Parrot

Parrots of the bulb world, tulips offer more sizes, shapes and colors than you can imagine, and this one is a stunner. Vivid violet purple blossoms edged in white with a mysterious touch of green. This tulip can be quite large when open displaying the frilly, waved petals that add so much interest. Mysterious Parrot is a sport of Arabian Mystery and carries all the beauty of this lost variety.

Mystic Van Eijk

A member of the Darwin Hybrid tulips, this one is very impressive boasting large, cup-shaped, coral pink flowers, streaked with a subtle rosy red. Standing up to 16" tall on very sturdy stems, Mystic Van Eijk blooms in mid-spring and is quite beautiful in any garden or as a cut flower.

National Velvet

With a name like this, it is straight to the winner’s circle for this tall, hardy Triumph Tulip. The richly colored blooms have a bit of a blackish hue. Classically shaped, these tulips have deep, velvety purple-red petals that lighten a bit toward the margins. At the base of their cups, a finishing touch of trophy gold.

Negrita

A popular, easy to grow Triumph tulip that is one of the prettiest and most popular of the lilac cultivars. A mid to late spring bloomer, it will thrill you with its large deep purple petals that are streaked with a red hue. As a tulip it will perform best in the sun and grow to about 18 inches.

Oxford Elite

Beautiful lightly scented, yellow cup-shaped flowers with a hot pink flare at the ends of the stems from early to mid-spring, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its sword-like leaves remain grayish green in color throughout the season.

Pink Impression

Pink Impression is an outstanding Darwin Hybrid tulip, known for its big, beautiful flowers and dependable performance. The blossoms open soft pink and become deeper and richer in color as they age. The tall, graceful stems are excellent for cutting.

Pink Mistress

Considered one of the best pink tulips - this mid to late blooming Triumph tulip has soft pink blooms edged with white - very feminine and absolutely lovely! Mistress is used to being the centre of attention and the luminous pink colour of this tulip will do just that in your garden. A favourite among seasoned gardeners.

Pretty Princess

A beautiful mid-spring blooming Triumph Tulip featuring bright rose-pink petals flushed on the outside with purple flames. Growing to a height of 12-14 inches, these pretty blooms are held atop very sturdy stems with lovely lance shaped foliage that is trimmed with a thin creamy white ribbon.

Purple Flag

If purple is your colour - then we suggest this regal shaded Triumph Tulip. Stately, royal purple blooms with a classic cupped shape are set atop strong, sturdy stems and appear in mid-spring. Stunning planted in groups and delight as they open to reveal their superb colouring.

Purple Prince

Single Early Tulip, Purple Prince is worthy of his name. With long-lasting blooms in the early-mid spring garden, it features rich purple petals, delicately lilac flamed on the outside and opens to a deeper purple on the inside with a golden yellow base. A hardy, reliable classic tulip of outstanding colour.

Queen of Night

Simply stunning with its dark, velvety deep purple-maroon-black petals shifting almost into black. This tulip will certainly lend drama as it contrasts brilliantly against the bright spring colours in late spring. Planted en masse this tulip will be the centre of attention. As beautiful as it is bold!

Red Parade

If you love a surprises, then Red Parade is the tulip for you! This Darwin tulip will steal the spotlight as each exquisite flower features a stunning yellow and black heart that's only visible when they fully open. Hardy & easy to grow, this classic shaped tulip is an excellent choice for almost any placement.

Rem's Favourite

A Triumph Tulip that is part of the Rembrandt series, this uniquely coloured tulip bears white flowers tinged with purple at the base. Flowering for4 many weeks, this beautiful flamed flowers are an elegant, traditional shape and are borne on sturdy stems.

Rigas Barikades

This unusual Lily-flowered Tulip has narrow, twisted, bright red-orange petals, yellow at the base, with reflexed tips and very interesting purple-striped leaves. Bred in Latvia, it is named after the barricades in Riga when the Latvian people fought against Russian occupation in 1991. A dramatic stopping point for garden visitors. Showy, early-blooming tulip has an incredible flower shape and grows just 8-10" tall.

Sky High Scarlet

Tall and Stately, this tulip is perfect for cut flowers. Huge, tomato red blossoms on tall, sturdy, 24", graceful stems. A recent introduction that was bred for larger flowers, more brilliant color, better heat resistance and increased vigor. Blooms in late spring to early summer, making it a wonderful transition flower between your spring and summer gardens.

Slawa

Enjoy this distinctive colour palette in your garden! This unmistakable tulip features lush, burgundy-red blooms edged in vibrant orange with dramatic, near-black flames reaching skyward. With its dramatic contrast and sturdy, 20" stems, this long-lasting tulip is sure to be a showstopper.

Snow Crystal

Double Fringed Snow Crystal makes a dramatic statement! Huge, pure white, double blooms with fringed petals and a green stripe running through the bottom of the outer petals make a big impact in the late spring garden. When fully open, the blooms reach up to 4½" across atop 12-14" stems. Due to their large flower size, these tulips perform best when protected from severe wind and rain.

Suncatcher

When you see the Suncatcher Tulip, you immediately think sunshine! Incredibly showy, it' features bright golden yellow blossoms bursting into fiery scarlet-red around the edges in mid-spring to late spring. Grows to around 40cm (16") tall and makes a great cut flower. Create a blaze of colour in your spring garden.

Sweet Sixteen

One of the earliest pink Tulips to bloom in the spring, this new Fosteriana hybrid opens in a warm ballerina-pink with paler edges and matures to luscious pale pink. At 10-12" in height, it is considered a short tulip making it perfect for early border plantings.

World Expression

Love the flamed tulips and this one is a gorgeous example. Large soft, creamy, primrose yellow blossoms are adorned with narrow scarlet red flames. As they mature, the petals whiten and the flames deepen to cardinal red. This elegant single late blooming tulip is as sturdy as it is beautiful.

Yellow Wave

A very cheerful Darwin Tulip. Brilliant bright-yellow blooms shine bright in the sunlight and are enhanced all the more with long leaves that are an interesting flat apple green with beautiful cream-colored stripes. This late spring flowering tulip will wake up your garden!

Zombie

If these are Zombies - bring them on! Despite its unfortunate name, this tulip is incredibly beautiful. Fosterianas are one of the earliest to bloom with remarkably wide flowers on strong stems. It's pink and cream on the outside, but when it opens up, it looks like an entirely different flower - a creamy star with red and black at the center.