Today, there are thousands of cultivars and hybrid tulips with registered commercial names. Although botanists organize tulips by genus, species, and cultivar, the bulb catalogs that arrive in your mailbox every summer describe tulips according to this groups.

Dear Lykkers, these groups are defined by shape, heritage, and flowering time. Some groups include tulips that have been in commercial production since the beginning of the 18th century.

Group 1: Single Early

Single early tulips flower in mid-spring with relatively large, round flowers, and neat foliage. They have short, sturdy stems that are no more than 16 inches tall. This smaller stature makes them ideal for containers. Many cultivars still in production date back to the mid-19th century, along with a few cultivars that first appeared in the early 18th century.

Group 2: Double Early

Double-flowered tulips are shorter, bloom a little later, and hold their flowers longer than their single counterparts. The long-lasting blossoms have so many petals that they resemble peonies! The large, heavy blooms sometimes require staking.

Examples: Foxtrot, Abba, Monte Carlo, and Orca.

Group 3: Triumph

Robust, mid-season tulips created by crossing early and late varieties, Triumphs form a widely varied group that offers everything from compact, rounded flowers to those with long, slightly flared petals. These flowers bloom on strong, upright stems standing 16-20 inches high.

Examples: Dynasty, Alibi, Negrita, Dreaming Maid, and Early Glory.

Group 4: Darwin Hybrid

These mid-season giants are a 20th-century innovation created by the brilliant breeder Dirk Lefeber, who crossed 19th-century Darwins with Tulipa fosteriana. Known for their giant, pyramid-shaped buds and their height, Darwin Hybrids are best massed in beds or as long-lasting cut flowers and tend to be warm colors like yellow, pink, and red. Certain varieties will perennialize if their foliage is allowed to die back naturally.

Examples: Beauty of Spring, Parade, Pink Impression, Daydream, and Golden Parade.

Group 5: Single Late

Regal and tall, Single Late tulips bear relatively delicate, orbed flowers on stems of 24 inches or more. Created in the 20th century through a series of hybrid crosses, these elegant flowers win admirers everywhere they are planted. Single Late tulips can be found in a wide range of vivid hues, including the Queen of Night, whose deep purple petals are some of the darkest shades found in tulips. As the name suggests, tulips in this group tend to bloom later than all the rest.

Examples: Queen of Night, Violet Beauty, Sorbet, and Maureen.

Group 6: Lily-Flowered

Lily-flowered tulips bloom in mid-to-late spring, and while they come in fewer colors than other groups, their delicate petals end at a point and are often trimmed in contrasting colors. These slender, beautifully flared tulips rise on narrow stems that bend and sway gracefully with even the slightest breeze. Some cultivars are evocative of the pointed tulips that were beloved in the Ottoman Empire, while others resemble lilies much more closely.

Examples: Mariette, Fly Away, Aladdin, and White Triumphator.

Group 7: Fringed

Fringed tulips arose from mutations within other groups and, as a result, bloom at varied times, rising on stems that range from short to tall. With petals that may be delicately crimped, wildly cut, or even feathery, they bring a startling beauty to gardens wherever they are planted.

Examples: Swan Wings, Cummins, Bell Song, and Santander.

26 Types of Tulip Flowers

Video by AroundTheWorldWithJ

Group 8: Viridiflora

Tulips in this group open late in the season with green buds that gradually reveal their base color while the petals retain a vivid green streak from base to tip. The form of these flowers is varied enough to include single, double, parrot, and lily-shaped blossoms on stems that range from 12 to 20 inches.

Examples: Artist, Hollywood Star, Formosa, and Flaming Spring Green.

Group 9: Rembrandt

Although Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is not known for his tulip paintings, he was the leading painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Bi-colored flamed tulips that resemble the famous broken tulips of that era are collectively referred to as Rembrandts. Large commercial growers no longer sell true broken tulips, but this group offers the closest approximation gardeners can buy today. The Rembrandt’s flamed and feathered petals are stable mutants of healthy plants from many other groups. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and bloom from early spring until late in the tulip season.

Examples: Rembrandt-inspired hybrids with flamed and feathered petals.

Group 10: Parrot

Parrot tulips are as flamboyant as their name suggests, with elaborately cut, curled, and ruffled single petals in a wide range of colors and patterns. These gorgeous flowers mutated from Triumph tulips and bloom late on stems from 16 to 24 inches tall.

Examples: Estella Rijnveld, Flaming Parrot, and Rococo.