Each year Criss and I plant several thousand Dutch tulip bulbs. But these horticultural triumphs, the result of centuries of assiduous breeding in the bulb fields of Holland, are not the only tulips that grow in the garden here at Lambley. Wild tulips, native to the Central Asian steppes, the hills of Crete, the olive groves of France, the ranges of Kurdistan, the Taurus Mountains, the Hindu Kush, even north Africa, and all the wild places between, have made themselves at home here. Some species have settled into the dry garden and others have naturalised in rough grass. No matter where we grow them they are amongst the most admired and coveted plants in the garden. All the species listed below need much the same conditions in the garden. They prefer cool winters and hot dry summers and won’t do at all in subtropical climates . At Lambley we plant the bulbs under perennials which are either low growing or cut back to the ground during winter as tulips make their foliage growth during winter and flower during the first half of spring. I personally think that the wild tulips do better if the soil they are growing in is covered by other plants during the heat of summer. We leave all the wild tulips in the garden and lift them only when they become congested which is about every ten years or so. Some groups of bulbs have been in the same spot for fifteen years. Our soil is naturally very acid, Ph 4.5 to 5, so we add dolomite lime or ground limestone every so often.