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A small and subtle species of tulip from the deserts of Uzbekistan. I grow it in a pot in the greenhouse
which is as close as I can manage to a desert. Professor Hedgehog's Journal says: "Tulipa sogdiana comes from desert areas in central Asia, and was named in 1852 by Alexander Georg Bunge (1803–90), a Russian botanist of German origin who took part in several expeditions to the eastern provinces of Russia between the 1820s and 1850s, and has (inter alia), an allium, a pine, a pasque flower and an ash tree named after him, as well as a whole genus of hemiparasitic plants, the Bungeae. ‘Sogdiana’ comes from the name of an ancient Iranian civilisation, centred on Samarkand." Writing for the Ulster group of the AGS in 2011, Mark Smyth says: "I’ve been suffering from Tulipmania for many years and have always been attracted to the smaller species and their cultivars that are suitable for rockeries and troughs. In late summer garden centre shelves are filled with suitable small growing tulips. The choice is getting better every year. Mail order offers a wider range of bulbs. T. sogdiana is a lovely small delicate tulip for March reaching about 20cm 8 inches high. The outside of the petals is various shades of silvery green and pink. The inner three are silvery white with a green stripe on the outside. Inside the centre is yellow." |
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