Tulips are the ultimate spring classic. Depending on the weather, those first brave wild tulips can start popping up as early as late March—sometimes even sooner! With a little planning, you can keep your garden glowing with a cheerful rainbow of colors for weeks on end. If you mix and match your varieties right during planting season, you can actually have tulips sticking around until the very start of summer.
The Tulip Timeline
How long your tulip display lasts really comes down to the varieties you choose. Generally, we group them into early, mid-season, and late bloomers. Each category has its own unique personality. Here are a few fan favorites:
- Early Bloomers: Wild tulips like Waterlily tulips (Kaufmanniana), Fosteriana, or tiny Dwarf tulips.
- Mid-Season Bloomers: Lily-flowered tulips, Darwin Hybrids, Triumph tulips, and the fringed Crispa varieties.
- Late Bloomers: Viridiflora tulips, exotic Parrot tulips, and lush Peony-flowered types.
Wild Tulips
Wild tulips (often called botanical tulips) are the hardy little ancestors of our modern garden favorites. Originally from the steppes of Central Asia, these guys are tough! Unlike some fancy hybrids, you don’t need to dig them up after they bloom. They’ll naturalize and spread on their own via “bulblets.” The *Forsteriana* variety is a real overachiever, often sprouting as early as February, while *Kaufmanniana* varieties usually show off from March through April.
If you’re looking for tulips for containers, early dwarf varieties like *Tulipa tarda* or *Tulipa sylvestris* are perfect choices—they stay compact and look great through April.
Mid-Season Tulips
If you time things right, these beauties will take center stage in April just as the early bloomers are bowing out. Running through May, you’ll find Triumph tulips with their sturdy stems and classic cup-shaped blooms in every color imaginable. This is also when Darwin Hybrids (which boast some of the largest flowers in the tulip world) and double Murillo tulips shine. Murillos are great because their shorter stems help them stand tall even during those messy spring windstorms.
Late-Blooming May Tulips
Late-season tulips save the best for last, blooming in May to give the season a grand finale. These varieties are all about the “wow” factor. Think Parrot tulips with their dramatic, fringed petals, the elegant green-streaked Viridiflora, or the incredibly lush Peony-flowered tulips that look exactly like their namesake.
One special group to look for is the Cottage tulip. This is a bit of a “catch-all” category for unique tulips that don’t quite fit in elsewhere, so you’ll find a huge range of shapes, sizes, and colors here. The most famous of the bunch? The stunningly dark “Queen of the Night”—the closest thing we have to a truly black tulip.
