Survival of cultivars

[janemcgary]

A deep dive into back issues of alpine gardening journals led me to notice many award-winning named cultivars of various bulb genera, some of which I had never seen in books, gardens, or catalogs. Most were of UK origin. Mainly those now grown in North America seem to be the ones that were propagated commercially. I wonder how many of the others are still extant in the UK and/or Europe? Do any of you preserve little-known cultivars of, say, Crocus? (I know you preserve those of Galanthus!) What are your hidden treasures? I promise not to write asking for them.

[Uli]

Hello Jane,

Personally I am more interested in species with the odd exception. But I do not grow any old cultivars. I would be happy to share if I did.....
I know of a show garden in the Netherlands where they are preserving old cultivars, especially of tulips. 
https://hortus-bulborum.nl/?lang=en
I checked the website to be sure what I write and I saw that you can order bulbs online.
One of the most interesting facts about this garden is that they manage to maintain some of the historical tulips from the tulipomania era in the 17th century. These varieties became popular because of virus induced colour breaks, a reason why I would not want them in my collection for sure.....

Bye for now 
Uli