List of Award of Garden Merit tulips

The following is a list of tulip species and cultivars which have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. They are bulbous perennials, originally from sunny, open habitats in Europe and Asia. Thousands of cultivars are available in a huge range of sizes, shapes and colours (other than pure blue). They are usually sold as bulbs to be planted in autumn and winter for flowering in mid- to late spring. They are frequently treated as bedding plants, accompanied by other seasonal favourites such as wallflowers and forget-me-nots, flowering for one season before being discarded. However, in favoured locations they can be left in the ground to re-appear the following and subsequent years. Like many other bulbous plants they require a hot, dry dormant period in the summer.

Groups
Tulips are divided into 15 distinct groups:-
 * 1) Single early - cup-shaped flowers to 7 cm in diameter, often margined with contrasting colour; early to mid-spring
 * 2) Double early - fully double bowl-shaped flowers to 8 cm in diameter, often margined with contrasting colour; mid-spring
 * 3) Triumph - single flowers to 6 cm in diameter; mid- to late spring
 * 4) Darwin hybrid - single flowers to 7 cm in diameter; mid- to late spring
 * 5) Single late - cup-shaped flowers to 7 cm in diameter, includes the old cottage and Darwin groups; late spring
 * 6) Lily-flowered - long, narrow blooms with flared, pointed petals; late spring
 * 7) Fringed - edges of petals are fringed with a different colour; late spring
 * 8) Viridiflora - flowers striped with green, or entirely green; late spring
 * 9) Rembrandt - "broken" colours (striped or feathered) caused by a virus; late spring
 * 10) Parrot - unevenly striped with irregularly cut edges; late spring
 * 11) Double late - peony-shaped fully double flowers; late spring
 * 12) Kaufmanniana - T. kaufmanniana and its hybrids, multi-coloured; early to mid-spring
 * 13) Fosteriana - T. fosteriana and its hybrids; mid-spring
 * 14) Greigii - T. greigii and its hybrids; early to mid-spring
 * 15) Miscellaneous - all species and hybrids not included elsewhere; the smaller species require sharp drainage and are best grown in an alpine garden