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sunandshadow_gw

Odd tulip - hybrid or virus?

sunandshadow
10 years ago

One of my tulips this year looks different from any I've planted. Shape-wise it looks like a ballerina, and is at about the same location I originally planted some ballerinas. But instead of being an even orange it is streaky red and yellow.

The tulip bed has been in place since 2009, so I guess that might have been long enough for a seed from the first year to have grown up and flowered...? I did have other red and yellow tulips nearby, but the flower shape was quite different - one was double/peony, the other was parrot. (Ballerina is a slender, pointed teardrop shape.)

Or, it might be a dreaded tulip mosaic virus. But I did not recently plant any tulip or lily bulbs that might have brought a virus with them, and there are no other off-colored flowers. Also, the leaves seem healthy aside from some bug holes and frosted tips, which all the other tulips also have.

Pictures:
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Opinions?

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