Customer Reviews

Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener

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Tulips: Species And Hybrids For The Gardener by Richard Wilford (Collections Manager, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England) is a beautifully illustrated, comprehensively knowledgeable, professionally informative, in-depth introduction to the many varying species of the delicate and powerful flower -- the tulip. Tulips: Species And Hybrids For The Gardener as an expert analysis and informative study of the many beautiful types and spectrum of this universally popular flower. Tulips: Species And Hybrids For The Gardener covers the care, placement, intricacies of individual species, color, history, and so much more. is recommended to all readers with an interest growing tulips and in need of the ultimate guide to their numerous variations.

In his study of the Tulip, Richard Wilford of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, provides a comprehensive consideration of various aspects under the headings: Geography, The Tulip Plant, Cultivation, and History & Classification; the book also includes suggestions as to where to buy species tulips in Canada, the UK and the US. There is also a Glossary, Bibliography and an Index.

The major part of the book looks at the individual species with detailed descriptions. Also listed is the genus Amana, and the more popular garden hybrids are also briefly considered under the various classifications. The plant descriptions are detailed and informed, often include notes on the species' history and specific comments on cultivation; Wilford occasionally offers his own opinions to a species' worth and use in the garden - making the descriptions very practical. Entires vary in length from a short paragraph to two or more pages for the more interesting species.

The book is illustrated with over 100 colour photographs varying in size from about a quarter to half a page, plus a one or two maps and drawings. The photographs appear alongside the plant entries, but far from all the plants listed are illustrated. A valuable addition to the gardener's library.

Few flowers have inspired the devotion (or generated the literature) that tulips have. I have managed to acquire a whole bookshelf of books on the genus over the years--some of them coffee table sized, full of glossy pictures, and others thick volumes like Anna Pavord's magnum opus. It's this rather compact quarto that delivers the goods. Richard Wilford covers the entire gamut of tulip species succinctly, but eloquently, sticking to facts. He also has a good overview of the principal tulip hybrids and their uses. He gives authoritative and thorough descriptions and adds valuable information on when and how each species was discovered and introduced, and provides great cultural hints (skewed naturally to Britain). The pictures are many and very well photographed. I have enjoyed poring through and find whenever I pause that I end up reading pages at a time: if you love tulips this is the book for you! You won't regret buying it.