This easy, graceful species is native to the Uzbekistan steppe and has naturalized throughout much of southern Europe. Blooming in mid-spring, narrow, linear, gray-green leaves frame 4” wide, star-shaped, lemon yellow flowers to 4” with outer tepals red on the exterior. On cloudy days, the petals stay closed, so that the bicolor exterior of red and yellow is prominent. On sunny days, the flowers open to form bright yellow stars.
Grow in organically rich, fertile, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to light shade. Plant 6-8” deep in fall (4-6” deep if in heavy clay soils), spaced 4-5” apart. Lady tulips are long-lived perennials which come back year after year. When grown as perennials, spent flower stems should be promptly removed after bloom, but foliage should not be removed until it yellows. In good growing conditions, it will naturalize in the garden by stolons and offsets to form colonies, and benefits from being divided after ~4 years and fertilized to promote bloom.
6-12” tall, hardy to Zone 3, for beds, borders, rock gardens, containers, masses.