Double tulips may be out of fashion, but don’t confuse fashion with beauty. These 5 very rare doubles are exceptionally beautiful. You’ll get 1 each of ‘Willemsoord’ (1930, ruby and ivory), ‘Murillo’ (1860, history’s most famous), ‘Mr. van der Hoef’ (1911, fragrant), ‘Harlequin’ (1912, burgundy misted), and ‘Anna Sluyter’ (1930, sunset hues). This was a special, one-time-only sampler offered in 2012 and we won’t be offering it in 2013. Sorry!

More varied than most gardeners realize, tulips can be early, late, fragrant, wild, double, ruffled, striped, and more. Here’s an easy introduction to that blissful diversity. We’ll send you 12 bulbs: 3 fragrant early ‘Prinses Irene’, 3 ruffled late ‘Black Parrot’, 3 double Victorian ‘Peach Blossom’, 3 wild slender ‘Florentine’. For zones 3-7aS/8WC.

For 6, 9, or more of each, order additional samplers.

Tulips in old gardens are often a hodgepodge of survivors no garden book would recommend but that always looks cheery and right. This ever-popular sampler honors those time-rich jumbles. You’ll get 15 late-spring jewels: 3 lilac ‘Bleu Aimable’ , 3 primrose ‘Golden Harvest’ , 3 deep purple ‘Greuze’, 3 ruby ‘Kingsblood’, and 3 ivory ‘White Triumphator’ (replacing ‘Dillenburg’ which is a total crop failure this year). For zones 3-7aS/8WC.

For 6, 9, or more of each, order additional samplers. We hope to offer this sampler again in 2013, but we may have to include different tulips in it. Please check back in June or subscribe to our email newsletter for an alert.

Most people have never even seen a brown tulip, let alone grown one. Here’s your chance! 18th-century ‘Absalon’ is intricately patterned with swirling flames of dark chocolate and chestnut brown on gold. It’s a true broken tulip, a Dutch Bizarre from the Hortus Bulborum – and sure to cause a buzz. 16”, late, zones 4b-7a, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Add some fireworks to your garden and bouquets with this spectacularly different tulip that Anna Pavord calls “spidery and mad.” Unknown in the wild, it’s probably the last survivor from the early 1700s when stilleto-petalled tulips like it were all the rage in the Ottoman Empire. Our Fall 2004 Heirloom Bulb of the Year, 20”, zones 4b-7aS/8WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Named for the ancient demi-god of manly beauty and spring’s magic rebirth, this true English florists’ tulip is the first Bijbloemen to bloom each spring. With deep purple flames on ivory petals, it’s a thrill you’ll find yourself looking forward to all winter long. 16-18”, zones 4b-7aS/7bWC, from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.

Only two parrot tulips from the 1600s survive, and you can grow this one! The jagged, billowing petals of this fabulous relic are a deep, fiery red embellished here and there with swirling brushstrokes of gold, green, and maroon. Tiny spurs and horns add to its wild allure. Its name is French (hence no “D” in Amiral), suggesting it got its start in quirky, flower-loving Flanders. (For 18th- and 19th-century parrots, see ‘Cafe Brun’, ‘Markgraaf van Baden’, and ‘Perfecta’.) Zones 4b-7aS/7bWC, from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.

“One of the most enchanting of the Cottage tribe,” the Scheepers catalog gushed in 1929. A true broken tulip, it opens with “the most lovely flushes and pencilings of pale to deeper yellow and pinkish lavender to rose” and then matures to a lace-like tracery of purple on white. Our friend Betsy Ginsburg was so enchanted she wrote a time-travelling detective story exploring how it got its name. Late, 16-18”, zones 4b-7aS/7bWC, from the Hortus. Chart to compare