Tulipa sprengeri

James Waddick jwaddick@kc.rr.com
Thu, 03 May 2007 10:49:03 PDT
Dear PBSers -
	For all intents the tulip season is over, but I see a few 
seedlings of T. sprengeri are getting ready to bloom for the first 
time. The seed came from the NA Rock Garden Society and I should 
check the label to see how long they took from seed. Seems like a few 
years.

	I  went to the PBS wiki and was quite intrigued to read of 
their history - Worth excerpting a bit of Roger Whitlock's 
introduction:

	"A single bulb was found in a shipment to the Dutch bulb firm 
of Van Tubergen from their collector in Turkey, J. J. Manissaadjian 
before World War I. It has been traced to the region about Amasya, 
but has never again been found in the wild. Curiously, Tulipa 
sprengeri does very well in gardens, seeding about with freedom. So 
much freedom, in fact, that in the early 1950s, E B Anderson, who was 
then administering the first seed exchanges of the Alpine Garden 
Society, specifically asked that seed of Tulipa sprengeri not be 
donated. Nonetheless, when one looks through the standard references 
on species bulbs, Tulipa sprengeri is often noted as rare and/or 
expensive. It is very odd that a species that seeds so freely in 
gardens is evidently extremely rare in the wild."

	Even wholesale I see they are around 6 E  ( over $US 8 each! 
(Yikes) So much for self seeding and weediness. Does anyone of our 
PBS members have enough of these 'weeds' to donate to the BX?

	Looking forward to bloom in the next few days  - provided we 
get some sunshine one of these days.

	Misty rains in Kansas City		Jim W.
-- 
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph.    816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
	Summer 100F +


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