I like the color very much. Do you know the latin for what you are calling Queen of the Night or are you refering to another tulip?.... The common name for my Epiphyllum oxypetalum is Queen of the night, and I can't see a tulip and it crossing-LOL.....P.S. I like the inside of your new tulips too.

Queen of the Night should be a dark purple color tulip.

My best friend have grown this flower and she invited me to watched the blooming process. She told me that according to the old folks that this is where the fairies live and your wish will be granted once you witness the blooming of the queen of the night. I'm just curious the flower that I have seen is colored white and it looks like a paradise inside the flower. Its so amazing and magical.

Ok so maybe it's not going to win any awards in Holland but it is quite an accomplishment to bring these seedlings along till they flower, and it still is a nice bloom. Do you have any more coming along or are these your only tulip seedlings?

I'm just thinking about how many people have trouble getting tulips from one year to another, and here you are growng them from seed!

My apologies, Maryl. Yes 'Queen of the Night' is a tulip. A very dark purple -- verging on black. Hopefully the link at the bottom will work.

Kato, I do have a number of this same cross which have yet to bloom. The only other one of this cross to have bloomed looks about the same as the above. I did do another cross around the same time, but I can't remember off the top of my head just what colors I had crossed (none of those have bloomed). Considering the bed they are in is nutrient poor, probably not too surprising it has taken so long to bloom.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I think it's impressive to have even raised a tulip seedling to bloom size; we can't even carry them over from year to year here. I've done lots of hybridizing, mostly hellebores, hemerocallis, bletillas, crinums, and other amaryllids, but only a small percentage of the offspring can ever be considered "keepers". Space for growing out the hundreds of plants in order to find that one useable cultivar is the main impediment to the hobby plant breeder. I don't have the heart to trash my "failures", either, so they just keep piling up until I can give them away.

One of my favorite plants is a Begonia that I hybridized accidentally; it's a cross of B. masoniana, a very tropical species with spectacular foliage, and B. grandis, a hardy species with lovely fall blooms. My hybrid, which I call B. "Worthless", is a real loser; it's neither hardy nor attractive! Still, I've hauled it in and out of the greenhouse for 10 years now every fall and spring...so enjoy your "designer" tulips, even if they're not exactly your ticket to retirement riches!

A plant hybridizer needs the patience of Job and be a work-a-holic to boot. Here in Luther Burbank country we still marvel at his industry. His growing fields were 12 miles from his home in Santa Rosa. Fifteen acres in the sandy soil of Sebastopol. His daily routine was to ride his bike to the fields and walk the rows of plants. With his feet he would kick over those plants not making the cut, leaving his workers to clean them out. It can take thousands of crosses to get one worthy plant. His original home and greenhouse are maintained for the public. Al

Thanks for the link Paul. Queen of the night Tulips make sense to me now.;)) Tulips don't do well around here (soil and climate), so I've never really gotten into them, but I still think your tulip is a luscious color. I'd kill for that color in a daylily for instance. Congratulations on your new baby.