Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Fashion'

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Fashion', also known as Kaufmann's Tulip, is also called the water lily tulip, due to its corolla that unfolds like a water lily, or even like a magnolia flower. This variety is derived from an easy-to-grow, flowering and particularly early botanical species. It offers beautiful flowers of delicately salmon-pink colour as soon as the end of winter under the sun. While the beauty of the flower is first noticed, the foliage, richly marbled with purple-magenta like the greigii tulip, also attracts attention. This hardy bulbous plant naturalizes easily in the garden, and faithfully blooms year after year. Combine it with scattered botanical crocuses in your shrub and perennial beds.

Native to the mountains of Central Asia, Tulipa kaufmanniana or Kaufmann's Tulip spreads in large carpets on the dry and rocky meadows of its native Turkestan. This species is the origin of numerous cultivars and hybrids with bright colours, including the 'Fashion' variety. Its bulb is round, covered with a brown tunic, and measures about 3cm (1in) in diameter. In spring, the plant forms a small clump composed of 2 to 5 lanceolate, wide leaves, 10 to 25cm (4 to 10in) long. The floral stem 15 to 20cm (6 to 8in) tall sometimes bears a pink-red bud as early as the end of January , which will release a flower in March with a diameter of 5 to 8cm (2 to 3in), with 6 not pointed but rounded-edged petals, 5 to 8cm (2 to 3in) in diameter. It opens widely in the sun, almost flat, in a hexagonal star centered on a yellow heart, and at that moment it resembles more a water lily than a tulip. The corolla closes when the sun hides. 'Fashion' exhibits more colourful petals on the outside. The interior of the petals is lighter, in a salmon-pink colour washed with red towards the base and marbled with very pale pink.

The Kaufmann tulips are very hardy plants, which naturalize easily in the garden when the required conditions are met. They prefer cold and humid winters and dry summers. They are used in sunny rock gardens, or at the base of deciduous trees and shrubs with late foliage like deciduous Euonymus, or with light foliage like Caragana, Sambucus nigra or Kolvitzia amabilis. 'Fashion', with its charming flowering, pairs well with early white crocuses and narcissus, which, like it, appreciate dry soils in summer and bloom around the same time, in March-April. You can also place it in pots on your terrace or balcony.