Dark tulips are back in vogue, and you don’t have to be Goth to appreciate ‘Greuze’. Its dusky buds on dark stems open into flowers of deepest purple, and it often follows its first bloom with smaller, slightly later blooms to make a clump that’s informal and charming. Named for an 18th-century French artist, it’s hard to pronounce but “Grooz” is close enough for us. Single Late/Darwin, 23 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Did you see this knockout in The New York Times? Like a sunrise in slow motion, it opens with baby-smooth, pale-yellow petals feathered with rose, and then day by day it transforms itself into a big, lightly ruffled flower of creamy white flamed with purple. You will be enchanted! Named for the Dutch East Indies, it’s a true broken tulip, late blooming, 16 inches tall, great in zones 4b-7a, from our friends at Holland’s revered Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.

An affordable 18th-century antique, “Emperor’s Crown” is still “magnificent for any purpose,” as C.S. Allen wrote in his 1893 best-seller, Bulbs and Tuberous Rooted Plants. Counterfeits are rife today, but our bulbs are the real deal. You’ll even see them blooming at Mount Vernon! Single Early, 13 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Red is the most traditional, iconic color in tulips, and ‘Kingsblood’ is one of the 20th century’s finest, most enduring reds. Tall, late-blooming, and stately, it’s drop-dead gorgeous interplanted with ‘Greuze’, or sprinkle a few among pastel tulips to add a bit of visual zest, like the maraschino cherries in the fruit cocktail your grandmother used to serve you. Single Late, 22-24 inches, zones 3a-7b, from Holland. Chart to compare.

During Tulipomania in the 1630s, this crown-like tulip of burgundy and ivory was traded for enormous sums. Today ‘Lac van Rijn’ (say: Lock von Rhine) may still seem expensive – but what else can you own from 1620 that costs so little? And since it multiplies happily with good care, it’s a smart garden investment. (We’ll be glad to explain that to your spouse.) Single Early, 14 inches, zones 4b-7a, from the Hortus. Chart to compare.

With bold flames and feathers of cherry-red on white, this stunning English florists’ tulip was bred by a Lancashire weaver over 150 years ago. But who was Mabel? Wife? Daughter? Or maybe a favorite barmaid at one of the pubs where the tulip societies held their shows back then? Multiplies well, late blooming, 18 inches, zones 4-7, from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.

This wildflowery gem offers small, late, vase-shaped blooms of pale lemon to cream blushed with rose on graceful, wiry stems. A “neo-tulip” discovered in the south of France in 1894, it is most likely a much older garden escape. Cheap counterfeits are common, so for the real thing, come to us! 14 inches, zones 4b-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Is this really “the most striking tulip in existence,” as Roy Genders wrote in The Cottage Garden and the Old-Fashioned Plants? Its glossy, ruffled, rich orange blooms are artfully feathered with rose and green, and they are deliciously fragrant. Parrot, 20 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

We sell tons of this old tulip every year, even though doubles have been woefully out of fashion for decades now – a testament to its great beauty. It’s a frothy extravaganza of white and pink (not peach), like a lacy, romantic, Victorian valentine. If you’ve never grown double tulips, start here! Double Early, 12 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Like a brilliant flag whipped into a frenzy by raging winds – or the claw of some freakish lobster from the Great Barrier Reef – or a Baroque filigree splashed with paint by the Color Kittens – that’s ‘Perfecta.’ One of Nature’s weirdest and most wonderful jewels, it’s been preserved by gardeners for over 250 years so you can enjoy it today. Parrot, 18 inches, zones 4b-7a, from the Hortus Bulborum. Chart to compare.