BARR’S BEAUTIFUL 
“ENGLISH TULIPS.” 
wr Awarded by tlie Koval Horticultural Society a Silver Medal. May dtli. ISO!. 
These Tulips in the South commence flowering according to the earliness or lateness of the season 
from the first to the last week in May, and when looked after may ho enjoyed, as Dr. Hogg can testify, 
for a month. The “English Tulip” is pre-eminently an amateur’s flower, and has been so for 
upwards of 300 years. At one time London was the centre of Amateur Tulip growers, with Scotland 
dividing the honour. Later on the Amateur element centred in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, 
and in these counties during the last thirty years great improvements have been made in the shape and 
^markings of this flower. Southern Amateurs who may be induced to take up Tulip culture will be 
pleased to read the following extract from the Manchester Guardian, 2nd June, 1802, from the pen of 
Mr. Samuel Barlow, the greatest of living authorities on “ English Tulips” : — 
“ The best Tulips known to exist, or that ever have existed, have been raised in England, principally 
in the Northern counties— Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. Over forty years ago the late 
Dr. Hardy, of Warrington, in a series of papers to the Midland Florist , completely settled all the points 
of excellence which go to make a first-class Florist Tulip, and his definitions have never since been 
disputed. Since then the cultivation of Florist Tulips has much improved, especially in the three 
counties named, although, singular to say, it has almost died out in the South of England, where, fifty 
years ago, the most enthusiastic Tulip growers made London their centre for exhibitions. There are 
distinct evidences now of a revival of interest in the South of this grand old flower, and 1 hope that the 
Exhibitions of the Royal National Tulip Society at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Manchester, will give 
additional stimulus to the cultivation and love for this fascinating flower." 
The Rev. Francis D. Horner, our most successful Amateur Tulip cultivator and raiser of new 
varieties, read a most valuable paper on Amateur Tulips to the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, April 19th, 1892, and which will be found in Yol. XV., Parts 2 and 3, “Journal of the Royal 
Horticultural Society," page 99. Wo commend it for perusal by intending Tulip Amateurs. 
In “Hardy Florist Flowers,” by Mr. James Douglas, there is a chapter on “English Tulips,” 
which deals with the whole subject of planting, lifting, and general culture. 
The Woodcuts repre- 
sent the upper sections of 
Tulip petals. The one 
on the left is a feathered 
flower, the colour con- 
fined mainly to the edge 
of the petal. The right 
hand block is a flamed 
flower, the colour runs 
round the edge of the 
petal, and in the centre 
breaks into a flame. 
The Woodcuts are re- 
presentations of typical 
flowers. But it is well, 
however, to state that there is a certain variability in the colouring of these Tulips from one year 
to another, so that it is seldom a flower is seen with exactly the same amount of colouring in its 
dress, and this is not without its interest to Amateurs ; even a feathered flower will sometimes become 
flamed, and a flamed flower feathered. 
Condensed from the Journal of Horticulture , June 2nd and 9th, 1892 : — 
“ English Tulips.”— Onwards, slowly perhaps, but surely, creeps the tide that has turned in 
favour of “English-Raised Tulips.” The term “ English Tulips” is uot a common one, for the 
flowers referred to are those usually classed as Amateur’s or Florists’ Late-floweriug Tulips. The 
name, “English Tulips” has something beyond insular pride to recommend it. In the 333 years 
which have elapsed since Conrad Gesner brought Tulipa Gosneriana from Constantinople, marvellous 
work has been accomplished by hybridisers with this species, but it was in England that the properties 
which are most esteemed in the best Tulips of to-day— perfect form, smoothness, substance of petal, 
and clean base— were developed. There are florists’ Tulips from the species Gesneriana in abundance, 
of foreign origin , which possess none of the above-named qualifications ; and the time has come, we 
think, for a distinctive appellation for this noble class of flowers which pays so high a tribute to the skill 
of the English florists. 
The raisers of most of the old “English Tulips" have long ago passed into the Silent Land, 
and the great world is oblivious of them, but an inner circle remembers many of them as workers 
for the good and the beautiful, ami honours them as peaceful benefactors, leaving behind them 
memories dear, as well as worthy successors, who still continue the great work of trying to improve what 
appears already perfect, and may never be surpassed, if equalled; labouring still for a higher ideal is 
man’s best nature. 
The absorbing interest of the “English Tulips” does not lie solely in their beauty of form and 
rich markings. Their life-history is not. the unbroken, uneventful one that other flowers enjoy. There 
comes a time when the self-coloured flower is a self no more, the rose, scarlet, or violet shining above 
the central silvery moon or ground of the Bybhomens and Roses, or the golden base of the Bizarres, 
