8 Unique Tulip Varieties To Spice Up Your Spring Garden With Bold Colors & Stunning Blooms

Tulips are a classic garden plant. They have a reputation for being straightforward yet stunning every spring. All you have to do is plant the bulb, watch it bloom, and move on to more exciting summer annuals and perennials.

But if you spend any time looking past the standard Darwin hybrid tulips, you start to realize how much range the genus actually has. There are fringed edges, streaked petals, and tulips that look like peonies or even ice cream scoops.

The unique types of tulips below cover a range of different looks that are distinctive without being difficult to source. All are available online and many are well-stocked at local nurseries, but often overlooked for the classic pink and red blooms that dot most spring gardens. Add a little variety to your garden with one of these spring stunners instead.

1. ‘La Belle Époque’

This one looks like it belongs in a painting. The warm, layered coloring that ranges from soft peach, apricot, to dusty rose can change depending on the light. 'La Belle Époque' is a double late-blooming type, so the full and ruffled flowers hold up longer than single-flowered tulips tend to.

Cut flower growers have latched onto this cultivar. The color palette photographs well against almost any background and the stems last long in the vase. Plant in full sun with good drainage. La Belle Époque sulks in wet soil more than most types of tulips.

Get La Belle Époque bulbs from White Flower Farm, which is a great resource for other unique tulip varieties.

2. ‘Black Parrot’

Parrot tulips are already a category apart – their slashed, twisted petals look almost artificial in person. ‘Black Parrot’ takes it even further with coloring that reads darker than most “black” flowers can manage. The deep burgundy-purple blooms actually look black in certain light.

The blooms nod slightly as they open and the petals fan out irregularly, giving the whole tulip an unruly quality that rows don’t suit well. So plant this cultivar in drifts, if you can. It’s a late season bloomer that extends the show long past the time when earlier varieties have already finished.

You can find Black Parrot bulbs online from Walmart.

3. ‘Ice Cream’

The name says it all. The outer petals of the ‘Ice Cream’ tulip form a deep pink cup and from the center rises a dense cluster of white petaloids that spill slightly over the edge. Once you see the vanilla scoop in the pink bowl, that’s all you can picture. It’s a peony-flowered tulip, so the blooms are substantial and last longer than you’d expect.

It blooms in mid-to-late season and keeps going even when most of the spring color has wrapped up. Provide full sun and good drainage. The double flower form means rain and wind can weigh down flower heads, so a sheltered spot helps with drooping.

Get Ice Cream tulip bulbs from Amazon for quick and easy planting.

4. Lady Tulip

The Lady tulip (Tulipa clusiana) is one that makes many people ask if it’s even a tulip. Flowers are narrow and elegant. They have white petals with a deep rose-red stripe on the outside. They open into a star-shaped bloom when the sun hits them and close back up on cool or overcast days. They’re a bit like crocuses in that way.

Being a species tulip changes the math on longevity. It’s smaller overall but longer-lived, naturalizing and returning over several years without being dug and replanted. It also tolerates warmer climates better than Darwin Hybrids, making it a real option in zones where tulips usually peter out after the first year.

'Tinka Candlestick' Lady tulips, which are available from Walmart, add a touch of delicate pink to the spring garden.

5. ‘Akebono’

‘Akebono’ is a unique Darwin type tulip – a group known for big flowers, a mid-spring bloom time, and tall stems. The color is a warm golden yellow that deepens toward the base. It has a clean flower form with nothing fussy about it.

It tends to show up while the rest of the garden is still looking sparse, which is part of what makes it useful – early color in a bare bed matters. There’s a reasonable chance Akebono will come back the following year, if conditions cooperate.

Shop beautiful Akebono tulip bulbs online at Walmart.

6. ‘Angélique’

'Angélique' has been in continuous production since the 1950s and the color is a big part of why. Its soft pink petals are densely layered with a slightly darker flush toward the center, this flower looks like a rose or a peony more than a tulip at first glance. It holds up well in a vase, too.

The color pairs with almost anything else blooming in late spring. A bag of Angélique bulbs like these from Amazon is the straightforward way to guarantee the layered pink combination rather than hoping a mixed bag comes close.

7. ‘Flaming Flag’

‘Flaming Flag’ is a Triumph tulip – the most widely planted class in the world – but looks nothing like the standard types in that group. They have a white base color with bold violet feathering and flame patterns that shift slightly flower to flower.

The effect is striking in a way that feels old-fashioned without being fussy, close in spirit to the “broken” tulips prized during the Dutch Tulip Mania in the 1600s. It is a mid-season bloomer, holds up well in wind, and the markings are worth a closer look – they’re ideal for growing tulips in containers for that reason.

Get pretty purple Flaming Flag tulips from Walmart.

8. ‘Exotic Emperor’

‘Exotic Emperor’ is white with heavy green feathering and streaking across the petals. It’s not the kind of green that looks like something went wrong, but a deliberate, almost variegated pattern that fades as the bloom matures. By the time it fully opens the green has mostly receded, leaving a large, clean white flower.

An early bloomer on sturdy stems, this Emperor tulip pairs well with late daffodils and early alliums. A good bulb planter, like this from Amazon, makes getting a full display in the ground considerably less tedious come fall.

Get your Exotic Emperor tulip bulbs for fall planting from White Flower Farm.