Gazing into the dazzling face of a wild tulip, Tulipa sylvestris (and friend)
The pointy yellow flowers have a tendency to cowlicked petals when closed, while their outer spines can be feathered with green or sometime red.
They appear strangely mobile, typically hanging their heads as the wait for the warmth of the sun.
With a little solar encouragement the flowers open to full, scorching effect.
Tulipa sylvestris is fairly short (~25cm) and naturalizes well in rough grass. The flowers are scented (lemons apparently). When the grass is dry I’ll give them a sniff!
Lovely gems en masse!
Absolutely!
How weird is it that I’ve never considered the possibility of wild tulips? These are beautiful!
I’d never seen/heard of them until three years ago when they planted them en masse in the pleasure grounds at Wimpole (NT) for the ‘June in Bloom’ Festival. They made quite a statement, if a bit early!
Gorgeous grown en masse like this.
Definitely. I must try a patch in our rough grass for next year.