THE NEW LILY-FLOWERED TULIP 
JOSEPH JACOB 
After Four and a Half Centuries of Intimacy, During Which It Has Sprung 
Many Sensations, This Beguiling Flower Suddenly Surprises Us Again 
[Editor’s Note: The Rev. Joseph Jacob, author of '‘Tulips,” published in 1912, the only book in English dealing with these 
plants, is one of England’s well known amateur flower fanciers and hybridizers, and we are sure of only the best either from his pen, or 
his gardens at IVhitewell Rectory, IVhitchurch, Salop. This is the first presentation in an American publication of the facts concerning 
this most interesting new flower .] 
JHE man who remembers 
that Tulips are among 
the garden’s old inhab- 
itants exclaims “ Is such 
a thing possible?” To think that 
these flowers came to Western 
Europe somewhere about the year 
1550, and that there is every 
probability that a few bulbs were 
brought over to America as a 
great garden treasure, in the May- 
flower: and then to read “ some- 
thing quite new in Tulips!” 
That’s surely a taradiddle! 
But it is not. It is a plain 
statement of fact; and it is quite 
possible, for the following rea- 
sons: — Firstly — because until re- 
cent times all Tulip growers and 
Tulip lovers were extraordinarily 
conservative in their likes and 
dislikes. There was one type of 
beauty and one alone; and about 
the only change that took place 
in the flower in more than 200 
years was the slow elimination 
of the pointed petal for the round. 
No one would have dreamed of 
trying to raise such a variety as 
the new Lily-flowered Siren, any 
more than an old-fashioned 
Dahlia raiser would have tolerated 
anything but the big ball-like 
bloom. Secondly — approxi- 
mately between 1880 and 1890, 
someone made the discovery that 
there was a great deal of beauty 
in many of the cast-offs, and in 
the neglected varieties which were 
to be found in English and Irish 
cottage gardens. These “caught 
on ” and became very popular be- 
fore the end of the last century, 
and the public taste became ac- 
customed to various new shapes 
— just as has been in the case of 
our old friend the Dahlia and, 1 
may add, the Chrysanthemum. 
THE NEW FORM OF THE TULIP FLOWER 
This is a portrait of Siren, the first of the Lily-flowered 
group to come up to London and set the world agog with 
the beauty of its recurved, shiny, silvery-rose petals 
T HE slender-stemmed and 
graceful, long-pointed-petalled retroflexa with its pale yel- 
low recurving petals was much sought after. No Tulip was 
more pleasing in a case. It became very popular. Then it 
entered into Mr. Krelage’s head (I presume from the date of 
their appearance in London) in the early years of the present 
century, to try to get the same graceful shape in other colors 
than pale yellow. It is true that 
there were elegans and fulgens in 
commerce, but these were red and 
lacked a good deal of the delicate 
grace of retroflexa: and there was 
a distinct opening for more of its 
type. 
Moreover, the splendid impor- 
tations from mid-Asia and the 
neo-Tulips of France and Italy 
had still further familiarized the 
Tulip-loving public with the great 
breakaways from the past. Con- 
sequently when Siren was brought 
to London to show itself in 1913, 
it was received with open arms, 
and was awarded straight off the 
distinguished honor of a first-class 
certificate by the Royal Horticul- 
tural Society of England. And 
that a prophet is not without 
honor save in his own country 
does not hold good of flowers, for 
the Lily-flowered race has received 
awards in its home — Holland — 
and it has richly deserved them. 
Only those who have seen its 
flowers can appreciate the exqui- 
site shape of the bloom, with w ide 
recurving segments and symmet- 
rical, yet far from stiff, contour. 
There is no mystery about the 
parentage. It has been produced 
by crossing retroflexa with Dar- 
win — w'hich one or ones 1 cannot 
say; but in the case of Siren, it 
might well be such an one as 
Louise de la Valliere or it might 
have been Clara Butt. As far as 
I can see any Darwin might be 
chosen, and possibly any Cottage. 
The very thought of the possibili- 
ties w'hich a continued usage of 
retroflexa conjures up makes 
one’s mouth water! Just imagine 
a pretty delicate silver-mauve — 
a broad, recurved-petalled Solo- 
mon; or a rich, broad, recurved- 
petalled orange like the President 
—to mention only two exceed- 
ingly beautiful and rare Cottage varieties! 
L A 
AST autumn three Lily-flowered varieties were offered by the 
firm of Messrs. E. H. Krelage and Son, of Holland. Siren, 
which is undoubtedly the pick of the bunch, with broad, silvery- 
rose petals gracefully recurved — likethat marvel of flower beauty 
'74 
