Description
We are often asked for Tulipa clusiana and T.clusiana cashmeriana but every time we tried to buy some in to grow on, we got sent yellow-flowered hybrids.
Finally one trusted grower has raised a true stock and we have a small number available. The origins of this are from a 1969 collection made in Kashmir for the now defunct firm of P.N. Kohli formerly of Srinagar.
The plants have white or palest pink petals, which develop carmine-red bands on the exterior (only) with age, all on 20-25cm stems. With heat and sunshine, the chalice-shaped flowers open very widely, closing again at night or as the weather cools. The centre of each flower is yellow, sometimes stained with a little blackcurrant purple and the anthers are deep, sooty black. A superb plant, but, I stress, our stock is small.
It may be of interest that this plant has never set seed here, or with a fellow grower, over many years and despite careful and repeated hand-pollination. The petals fall, the pods start to swell but then they fail to develop fully. I have recently come across a paper describing triploid populations of T. clusiana cashmeriana which have been found around Srinagar. These are, of course, sterile. This is not proof, but it is perhaps evidence.
