Darwin Hybrid Tulips - the Perennial Tulip

Darwin Hybrids are big, bright and beautiful. Tall, up to 28 inches (70cm), they have giant billowing single flowers - 6 inches (15 cm) across - which explode from perfect pyramid-shaped buds. They flower late, in May, around the same time as the rather more flamboyant Parrot Tulips.

They're versatile too. In borders and vases, their pure brilliant colors will steal the show, and in lawns and meadows, they'll come back year after year, even withstanding strong winds. In fact, they naturalize so well, they are also known as the Perennial Tulip. That's because they're bred from the old Darwin Tulips and Fosteriana Tulips, which also naturalize very well.

Here are our top five:

The classic red Darwin Hybrid Tulip, Tulip Apeldoorn is well known around the world. Vibrant cherry petals open to reveal a black heart edged with yellow. Tulip Apeldoorn grows to 20 inches.

A giant of a tulip, Tulip Parade has huge red flowers on strong 26 inch stems. Reliable and robust, it has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Tulip Ollioules has huge blousy rose-pink flowers edged with silver, borne on 22 inch stems. In fact these flowers are among the largest of all tulips, but they open from tightly packed goblet-shaped buds.

Tulip Daydream brings drama to a garden as its golden buds open into massive soft orange flowers with infinite shades of apricot in between. Very fragrant and a good natural multiplier or perennial tulip, its beauty and reliability have been recognized by the Royal Horticultural Society, which has awarded it the Award of Garden Merit (AGM).

Plant in drifts for maximum multicolored effect.

A new variety, Tulip Hakuun is now the whitest of all Darwin Hybrid Tulips. Large snow white blooms are borne on 22 inch stems, which will stand up to most winds. A stunning border tulip and cut flower.

Tulip Hakuun (White Cloud) was bred in Japan.