Tulips bring colour and interest to any garden in spring and red-flowered tulips are a classic. From blowsy tulips through to delicate fringed varieties, there are red tulips to suit every taste and garden.
We've asked professional gardeners, plantspeople, garden writers and designers to reveal their picks of the best red tulip bulbs to grow. The list includes everything from lily-flowering tulips with dramatic pointed petals to sumptuous double flowering varieties, as well as fun ruffled flowers and hybrid choices you can naturalise to return year after year.
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The best red tulips
Tulipa ‘Early Harvest’
This is always the first tulip in flower. On a sunny day the flowers yawn wide open revealing reddish-yellow stars. Often the bulbs from previous plantings persist for a few years and flower three weeks before the newly planted bulbs. ‘Early Harvest’ is tough and can take all weathers – even snow.
Award of Garden Merit. 25cm. Late winter to early spring.
Tulipa acuminata
This spidery-looking tulip has been described as more of a curiosity than a beauty. Tall flower stems produce a single bloom with exceedingly elongated tepals with a base colour of yellow, but infused and streaked with a fiery scarlet. Requires full sun and good drainage. Works well in a pot, a border or even grown among wildflowers in a spring meadow.
50cm. Late April to early May.
Tulipa ‘Marilyn’
This lily-flowered tulip has a touch of flamboyance and looks good planted with T. ‘Paul Scherer’ in a tall pot, where it will flashes its fabulous rose flame without dominating other planting.
50cm. Late April to early May.
Tulipa ‘Allegretto’
Rose-like flowers, with densely packed crimson petals that have a golden-yellow trim. Needs shelter.
45cm. Flowers in May.
Tulipa sprengeri
This is always the last of the wild tulips to flower, into June sometimes. Has proved itself an easy garden plant, growing easily from seed and one of the few tulips to self-sow, slowly forming a colony, as long as the young seedlings are left undisturbed (it takes about four years to reach flowering size). Can also tolerate some shade and seems to enjoy soils that don’t dry out too much.
Award of Garden Merit. 30-40cm. April – May.
Tulipa ‘Apeldoorn’s Elite’
Vanilla-scented and, like all Darwin Hybrids, really effective when planted in blocks.
Award of Garden Merit. 50-55cm. Mid April.
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Tulipa ‘Bastogne’
Sultry, blood-red Triumph tulip, with strong stems. Lightly scented and good for pots and containers, as well as cutting.
40cm. Flowers April to May.
Tulipa ‘Kees Nelis’
A vibrant red tulip, with a yellow edge. Sturdy flowers on sturdy stems. Truly a triumph.
30-40cm. Flowers early May.
Tulipa linifolia ‘Red Hunter’
A strong, scarlet cultivar that opens wide in the sun to reveal a dark blotch. If planted in a free-draining spot it will increase freely. One of the best smaller tulip species for the garden.
Award of Garden Merit. 15-20cm. April.
Tulipa ‘Rococo’
Frilly, flamboyant, fire-engine red and fabulous in pots with wallflowers.
35cm. Mid April to early May.
Tulipa ‘Slawa’
A handsome and dramatic tulip, with a tall, slightly waisted flower. The petals are almost striped, deep burgundy-red in the centre, with a band of deep pink or apricot on either side.
40cm. Early April.
Tulipa ‘Spryng’
This new cross between a Darwin Hybrid and a Triumph tulip has the best of both: strong stems and huge, long-lasting flowers. White with red flames – the tulip equivalent of seaside rock stick candy.
Award of Garden Merit. 55-60cm. April to May.
Tulipa ‘Valery Gergiev’
Fiery, fringed and uncompromisingly crimson. Will deliver high drama to a sunny border.
40cm. April.
Tulipa x gesneriana
A beautiful true-scarlet bloom held on long stems. This hybrid of unknown origin has been used extensively in the breeding of modern garden tulips.
40cm. Late spring.
Tulipa orphanidea Hageri Group
Produces up to five red globe-shaped flowers from each bulb. These sit above gently undulating leaves. Also sold as Tulipa hageri, the group was named for botanist Friedrich Hager who collected the tulip in Greece in 1862.
20cm. End of April.
Tulipa humilis ‘Lilliput’
Unusually for a tulip, the species resents an extreme baking heat in summer so does well in more temperate European climates. This short, early flowering cultivar has a pronounced blue/black blotch and usually produces more multiple flowers per bulb.
10-15cm. March.
Tulipa montana
With its brilliant red flower, this is the archetypal ‘little red tulip’. It comes from central Asia and was first described in 1827 by John Lindley. Sometimes sold under a later synonym, T. wilsoniana, it is best grown in pots where summer moisture can be regulated.
10cm. Early spring.
Tulipa ‘Gavota’
A mid-season Triumph tulip. The flowers have a lovely shape – square at the base and slightly flared at the mouth with pointed tips. The distinctly medieval colour combination of burgundy with golden-yellow margins is quite striking, although difficult to blend with other tulips or flowers. Inside, the flower is all yellow. Use it against a solid foil of fresh, green foliage, such as lupins or sweet Williams, which will go on to engulf the old flower stems after the tulips have finished and continue the show. ‘Gavota’ can be perennial if it likes your soil.
Award of Garden Merit. 45cm. Late April and early May.
Tulipa ‘Carnaval de Rio’
A striking bi-coloured Triumph bloom, that is well suited to its name, with brilliant red feathering on a white ground.
50cm. Late April and May.
Tulipa ‘Raspberry Ripple’
An uncompromising combination of deep red, flamed and flared, on a white ground. Makes a strong, square-bottomed flower. An eye-catching cut flower.
50cm. April.
Tulipa ‘Burning Heart’
Huge flowers, variable in their markings. Some are pale cream, streaked with red, others are flushed all over with red. Inner petals are more strongly marked than outer.
Award of Garden Merit. 55cm. April to May.
Tulipa ‘Abu Hassan’
Flowers of deep mahogany red, with an edge of deep gold around the top of the petals. It never opens up to show the inside.
50cm. Early May.
Tulipa ‘Grand Perfection’
An attempt to get close to the Rembrandt tulips of Dutch Old Master paintings, with broad flashes of red spreading over a creamy background.
Award of Garden Merit. 45cm. Late April.
Tulipa ‘Red Dress’
An unusually shaped tulip, now part of a new category, the Coronet group. The petals are of a stiff, thick texture, twisting in several directions before gathering in a crown.
40cm. Mid to late spring.
Tulipa ‘Estella Rijnveld’
One of the best Parrot tulips, the petals exuberantly ruffled in red and white. Raised in the Netherlands in 1954 by Dr de Mol and named after his wife.
55cm. May.
Tulipa ‘Pieter de Leur’
A rich-red, lily-flowered type with a deeper shading along the mid-rib of the tepal. It is slightly reflexed when fully open.
55cm. April to May.
Plant choices and words: Jonny Bruce, Marina Christopher, Kristy Ramage, Camilla Swift, Anna Pavord, Hannah Gardner, Stephanie Mahon, Mat Reese, Polly Nicholson, Tom Coward, Alys Fowler, Dan Pearson, Tom Brown, Asa Gregers-Warg.
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