Single Late Tulip 'Temple of Beauty'

This tulip and it's sisters Hocus Pocus, Temple's Favorite and Perestroika are some of my favorites. We plant thousands of bulbs in our ...Read Moregardens every year and these late May bloomers never fail to perform. Their 28" height makes them wonderful to combine with lower growing late bloomers or just as a group by themselves. Truly wonderful additions to the spring garden!
NoniGardens

I have seen it flowering in Keukenhof this year (2008)...oooh it was really huge..I had problems to take nice photos of it..it simply did...Read More not fit in my lens. Very impressive!

‘Temple of Beauty’ tulip was introduced in 1959 by Dirk W. Lefeber, a world leading and renowned tulip hybridizer and the introducer ...Read Moreof Darwin Hybrids. He created a higher level of excellence in tulip size, color combinations, and garden performance.
This sensational interspecific hybrid arose from a cross involving the salmon rose lily-flowered tulip ‘Mariette’, from which it gets its color, and unknown Greigii cultivar, which has endowed it with faint leaf markings that fade as the plants mature, and bulb shape typical of T. Greigii. The elongated flower shape is intermediate between Lily-flowered and Greigii tulips. It is a triploid tulip, which presumably accounts for its stature: being very vigorous and having extremely gigantic sizes. This giant is considered to be the largest tulip in the world and there is no other tulip to date excelling it in size. For many gardeners, it is the epitome of tulip breeding.

It has exquisitely-shaped huge (up to 14 cm) pointy flowers of deep salmon-rose with carrot shading on bold sturdy massive stems (100-120 cm in height); mid- to late- flowering. It grows well if planted in a sunny position and prefers a well-drained loam: moist throughout the growing season and bone dry in summer (if the bulbs are left in the ground). It doesn’t grow well in acidic heavy clay soils.
This tulip makes huge bulbs and increases well. For best performance it is recommended to lift the bulbs every year or, at least, every other year. During humid summers the dormant bulbs left in the ground are more susceptible to fungal diseases and might be endangered to be affected with fusarium and some other rots. It performs well without lifting 3 years, occasionally 4.”

Though officially it is classified as Single Late tulip (the division that embraces Darwins, Cottage tulips, Breeders and some other Late-flowering tulips), many growers ascribe it to the Greigii division, taking into account a number of characteristics inherited from its parent, T. Greigii: flower and bulb shape, mottled foliage, and growing requirements. In fact, it has nothing in common with Single Late tulips. It is true, the Single Late division has many different faces and has been assembled over the years from goblet-shaped tulips with mixed and varied backgrounds that only had in common the fact that they flower very late in the tulip season, but ‘Temple of Beauty’ is mid-late flowering, blooming right after Darwin Hybrids when almost all representatives of Single Late division are in bud.

A number of different sports have come of this outstanding tulip, forming the so-called ‘Temple of Beauty’ family. These tulips are also often called “Giant Lefeber Hybrids” – a legend and standard in the tulip industry. The sports retained all the superb qualities of the mother variety, but added new color spectrums in flower. These amazing tulips are very showy; making a bold statement in the garden with their fantastic display, enlightening every garden; real knockouts. Mixing them together will make a dramatic effect in the garden. They are superb as cut flowers as well. But because of their giant sizes, it is not recommended to combine these tulips with other ones, as others can be lost against the overpowering back-cloth of them.

‘Blushing Beauty’ (Lefeber 1983) –
Apricot-yellow flower, with a pinkish-red outer flame and yellow base. The warm blend of colors is well described in the cultivar name of this sport and it is among the most popular of the 'Temple of Beauty' family.

‘Hocus Pocus’ (Lefeber 1983) -
Sulfur-yellow brushed with buttercup-yellow and fine, yet bold reddish-pink flaming. A fabulous variety and my favorite among all ‘Temple of Beauty.’ sports

‘Temple’s Favourite’ (Lefeber 1984) –
Nasturtium-orange with carmine-rose outer flame and yellow base. It is close in color with the mother variety ‘Temple of Beauty,’ but having more orange.

‘Perestroika’ (or ‘Perestroyka’) (Lefeber 1990) –
Combination of currant-red, coral-orange and raspberry flames atop a sunny yellow base, but from a distance it’s a lovely dusky salmon-rose. As distinct from other ‘Temple of Beauty’ sports, its foliage is slightly shaded blue-gray and is less mottled.

‘Blushing Lady’ (D.W. Lefeber & Co 1991)
A newer cultivar very similar in color combination to ‘Blushing Beauty,’ but with the slightest difference in shade; ‘Blushing Lady’ being somewhat darker. The difference is visible only in the first and second days of flowering when comparing these two varieties.

The following 4 sports, which are in the process of registration, have just recently appeared in the market:

‘Long Lady’ (Van Eeden 02.2000; sport from ‘Blushing Beauty’) –
Again very similar in color combination to ‘Blushing Beauty’ and ‘Blushing Lady’.
It is the palest, and in this case the difference can easily be seen.

‘Deep River’ –
Elegant bright yellow flowers.

‘El Nino’ –
Coloration is so varied that it looks mixed; salmon-rose and yellow solids, striped and splashed. Tulip with eye-catching appeal, a real baby!

‘Big Brother’ -
Orange blend.