Tulipa Gold Race - Parrot tulip

The 'Gold Race' tulip is a yellow parrot tulip, recognisable by its wavy, ruffled, fringed and vividly coloured petals. The soft green bud opens into a large golden-yellow corolla. This variety flowers in spring, towards the end of the tulip season. Plant the bulbs in groups, in a border, a bed or a square reserved for cut flowers.

The 'Gold Race' tulip belongs to the Tulipa genus, of the Liliaceae family. Wild tulips are bulbous perennial plants, native to a large area ranging from southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin to Central Asia. This variety is classified in the horticultural group of parrot tulips, or Division 10, which includes tulips with single, cup-shaped flowers, with wavy, fringed, cut or twisted tepals. It was registered in the Netherlands in 2016 by Mts Blankendaal van Kampen, as a mutation of ‘Strong Gold’. The plant forms a clump of leaves from which a green, sturdy stem of 45 to 50cm emerges, bearing a large bright yellow to golden-yellow flower. At the bud stage, the outside of the petals is soft green to yellow-green; this colour remains more or less visible in patches when flowering in April-May. The grey-green foliage consists of broad lanceolate leaves that turn yellow after flowering, then disappear: the vegetation is deciduous, and the bulb enters dormancy before summer. 
Before becoming a symbol of the Netherlands, the tulip was a precious flower in the Ottoman Empire, where it adorned both gardens and ceramic decorations.

In the garden, plant it in small groups of about ten bulbs. Its golden-yellow pairs well with the coppery amber orange of tulip ‘Cairo’, or the pinkish caramel reflections of the variety ‘Brownie’. You can also pair it with parrot tulip ‘Green Wave’, striped with green, cream and pink. Beside it, Narcissus ‘Pipit’ adds a lemony note. In a vase, add leaves of Eucalyptus gunnii, young shoots of corkscrew willow or bare branches of dogwood.

In the 18th century, Parrot tulips were described as 'monstrous'; this group developed greatly in the 1930s, when it was discovered that irradiating bulbs with X-rays caused this mutation. They are among the most well-loved varieties for cut flower arrangements. Remember to consider the height and flowering period when designing your borders, as these vary significantly from one cultivar to another.