Here’s the inspiring story of Holland’s tiny Noah’s ark of bulbs. Founded in 1928, the Hortus today preserves 2500 rare historic varieties. With antique images, color photos, and a list of the entire collection, this unique book offers an inside look at the history of bulbs. Softcover, 177 pages, 68 color photos.

More varied than most gardeners realize, tulips can be early, late, fragrant, wild, double, ruffled, striped, and more. Here’s a beginner’s sampling of 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 6, 9, or more of each variety, order additional samplers. Zones 3-7aS/8WC, from Holland.

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 white ‘Alabaster’, 3 lilac ‘Bleu Aimable’, 3 primrose ‘Golden Harvest’, 3 deep purple ‘Greuze’, and 3 ruby ‘Kingsblood’.

For 6, 9, or more of each variety, order additional samplers. For zones 3-7aS/8WC, from Holland.

From the 1600s through the 1800s, the short, colorful, early-blooming Duc van Tols were universally popular. Today, on the other hand, it’s a rare gardener who’s even heard of them let alone grown one. Here’s your chance to try 5 very rarely offered colors of these all-but-lost pixies: 1 ‘Duc Violet’ (1700); 1 ‘Duc Cochineal’ (crimson, 1700); 1 ‘Duc White’ (1805); 1 ‘Duc Yellow’ (1830); 1 ‘Duc Scarlet’ (1850). 6-8 inches, zones 5-7, from the Hortus. (For more, see our favorite ‘Rose’ and the original ‘Red and Yellow’.)

It’s not by chance that so many wild tulips are red, or that for centuries red was the most popular color for garden tulips. As every artist knows, red and green are complementary colors so together they look especially vibrant and right. And through some quirk of genetics, red tulips are often more vigorous and enduring than their peers.
           You’ll get 1 bulb each of 5 brilliant, long-lasting, and very rarely offered Single Early tulips: 1 ‘Cramoisi Brillant’ (1785), 1 ‘Vermilion Brilliant’ (1845), 1 ‘Cardinal’s Hat’ (1860), 1 ‘Artus’ (a.k.a. Garibaldi, 1860), and 1 ‘Vuurvlaam’ (1897). For zones 5-7, from the Hortus.
          For 2 or 3 of each variety, order additional samplers.

Most people have never even seen a brown tulip, let alone grown one. Here’s your chance! 18th-century ‘Absalon’ is intriguingly 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 inches, 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 inches, zones 4b-7a, from Holland. Chart to compare.

If you’ve ever lusted after Sissinghurst’s iconic White Garden, here’s a tall, elegant, late-blooming tulip that can bring a touch of that magic place to your own back yard. It’s long lasting in bouquets (combine it with ‘Golden Harvest’ and forget-me-nots for a pastel dream) and it’s fragrant! Darwin/Single Late, 19-21 inches, zones 3-7, from Holland. Chart to compare.