Tulipa Red Riding Hood Double

The Greigii Tulip 'Red Riding Hood Double' is a low-growing variety with large double, bright red flowers which bloom into wide satin corollas on a beautiful green-grey foliage marbled with brown-purple. This flower is one of the first tulips in the garden and creates remarkable patches of colour in the garden, especially when emerging from a carpet of grey foliage. It will have excellent performance in flower beds with a long flowering period, drought-resistant, undemanding, robust and reliable in well-drained soil where it will easily naturalise. Plant the Greigii botanical tulips near your front door or along a main pathway to cheer you up!

The Greigii Botanical Tulip 'Red Riding Hood Double' belongs to the Lily family. It is a very recent horticultural creation, still rarely found for sale. Tulipa greigii species was the first to be cultivated from wild bulbs, after being brought from Uzbekistan to Germany in 1871. It is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran and has given rise to numerous cultivars, including 'Little Red Riding Hood Double'. This small tulip will not exceed 25 cm (10in) high when in bloom, with its very stout stem elongating over time. Its foliage is slightly greyish green, a little glaucous, very broad, wavy at the edges and beautifully marked with brown and purple spots. The flowers appear in April, earlier or later depending on the climate. They are scarlet to vermillion red, sometimes washed with grey-violet on the outside and shiny. The base of the petals is warmed by a purplish shade. For more than 2 weeks they open under the sun and close when it goes in.

Botanical tulips are robust and do not degenerate over time like many large-flowered tulips. They can naturalise and remain in place for several years without any special maintenance, thriving in borders and rock gardens. To create colourful scenes, they can be associated with various small bulbs: Crocus, Allium moly, Ipheion uniflorum, Anemone blanda, small-flowered Narcissus, Muscari, Puschkinia, Cyclamen coum, Erythronium pagoda, Leucojum vernum, snowdrops, Scilla sibirica... We have planted them near a very compact sage, with light grey evergreen foliage. The sight of their flowers emerging a little more each day from this large silver carpet in March is simply magnificent. These tulips are unmatched for bringing the colours of spring to pots or sunny gardens.