Parrot Tulips ~ How do they do that?

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe

"Pink Tulip" Georgia O'Keeffe (1926)

Was Georgia O’Keeffe thinking of tulips when she made this remark? It seems there is no better flower to submerge your thoughts in than our novelty tulips. We sometimes call these varieties “fancy”, and I like this term more, because in theory a “novelty” wears off, where my fascination with these ornate gems is unending.

Looking at tulips in the “Parrot” family can be pretty mind boggling. The most often question we hear is “How do they do that?” How do the petals gain the fringe, the curly edges and the wavy texture that makes these tulips truly fancy?

Parrot tulips came on the scene in the early 1900’s. They existed before then, however, there was a renaissance of the Parrot as breeders were able to increase stem strength in about 1930.

Tulipa gesnerana dracontia is the name for the variety of cultivated tulips known as Parrots. The bold serrated edges of the tulip petals give them a ruffled appearance; this ruffled look is thought to be very similar to the feathers of a parrot. These feathered and contorted petals really grab your attention, and require a second look to see what is going on with these blooms. Technically these tulips are early flowering; however, at Sun Valley we have them year round.

Rococco           |               Salmon Parrot               |                Super Parrot           |           Bright Parrot

The history of how some of these wild varieties have come to be is sketchy at best, however, I did track down Lane DeVries to ask him, what happens to create these interesting tulips? He explained that many of our fancy tulips are in their origin mutants; meaning a genetic abnormality, which breeders were able to reproduce. Some examples are:

• Our Rococco variety is a mutation of a classic tulip variety named Couleur Cardinal.

• Our Super Parrot is a mutation of White Dream.

• Our Bright Parrot is a mutation of Kees Nelis.

• Our Libretto Parrot is a mutation of Prominence.

Many of our fancy tulips have an ornate fringe, such as Honeymoon, Dallas, Daytona and Curly Sue. These fringed varieties were developed by one of the modern masters of tulip breeding, Geert Hageman. Tulips with fringe have been around for many years, yet these new varieties stand out as dramatically better tulips for growing commercially, as opposed to a “garden variety” tulip. To achieve these impressive results, the rumor is Mr. Hageman took older heirloom varieties of fringed tulips, then crossed them with newer varieties, creating an exceptional class of beautiful fringed tulips.

Honeymoon                   |                 Dallas             |                 Daytona             |                 Curly Sue

In the greenhouse, our fancy tulips grow a little faster than our standard tulips, they usually come to harvest about 4 or 5 days sooner than a regular tulip. For this reason our lead tulip grower Antoon Volwater plants all the fancy tulips in the same vicinity of each other. He says he like to keep them together to facilitate the picking and for monitoring their progress because they need a little more attention than a standard tulip.

A developing Rococco Tulip

Antoon also pointed out that you can tell the crates of fancy tulips because when they emerge from the ground, the first leaves that appear are flared out horizontally, while a regular tulip’s leaves stand straight up. We generally put fewer bulbs in each crate, so they have a little more room to move, and of course, like all Sun Valley’s tulips, we grow them in Lane’s special blend of soil. Growing in soil leads to bigger, healthier tulips than what is flown in from Holland. (Check out this comparison).

Antoon among his tulips.

This obsession with quality is a distinctly American ideal, and it shows in our tulips. Flowers grown in the United States have a better vase life, a lighter carbon foot print and they represent American jobs, which is something everyone is concerned with these days. Get the best of both worlds, ask for high quality American grown flowers and support our economy by keeping your dollars stateside.

Call a Sun Valley Floral Farm Sales Rep. to see what fancy tulips we are currently harvesting.