Growth and Flowering Responses of Elite Varieties of Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) in Rawalpindi Climate Zone

Abstract

T ulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) is leading cut flower around the globe. It is a bulbous plant that contain bulbs as a source of food ( Jhon and Neelofar, 2006). The Tulip have more than 100 species and countless varieties of commercial importance (Coskuncelebi et al., 2008), wild types of tulip are abundantly found throughout the hilly areas of Pakistan especially in Murree and Islamabad. The production of tulip is not carried out abundantly in Pakistan for both commercial and home gardening due to that import Abstract | The tulip is an important cut flower around the globe. The Tulip is not famous in Pakistan for sale and cultivation for commercial purposes as well. The evaluation of exotic varieties are very important for recommendation to local farmers for better yield. Four tulip varieties cv. Antarctica, Oxford, Ballerina and Apeldoorn were purchased for evaluation. The 100 bulbs of each variety were planted in the bed. The performance of the plants during 2017-18 were judged by observing the bulb germination percentage, leaf width (cm), leaf length (cm), scape length (cm), flower size (mm), primary color of the flower, secondary color of flower, no. of large, medium and small size of bulbs and number of bulbs harvested. The bulbs were harvested and stored at 5±2 o C (In Refrigerator). The morphological attributes of plants were observed better in cv. Antarctica and Oxford. The research was repeated during the subsequent years. The variable response was observed in various varieties of tulip in Rawalpindi climate. The cv. Antarctica and Oxford were observed as best performer wise all the attributes. The same varieties are recommended to local farmers for cultivation as well.