Vivid beauty extinct in wild

Tulipa Sprengeri is a most striking tulip. Its flowers are such a stunning bright red they almost appear to glow.On closer inspection, it is the golden yellow stamens and gold-backed petals, in vivid contrast to the red, which together produce an effect of luminosity. Each petal ends in a delicately pointed tip.

Though the flowers are small, they are held high on tall, slender stems, giving the plant personality.

We are really very lucky to have it in cultivation. It was originally collected in Turkey in the 1890s but is now thought to be extinct in the wild.

This is quite baffling because Tulipa sprengeri self-seeds with freedom about the garden. It produces seed pods fat with masses of seeds which germinate a few months after sowing.

For a tulip, the bulb is also fast to develop from seed to flowering size, taking only three to four years.

Tulips thrive with good drainage, hot and dry summers and cool, moist winters. Tulipa sprengeri does best in sunny or partially shaded borders.

This lovely red Turkish tulip is flowering now in the camellia border near the herb garden and water garden.

• Tulipa sprengeri was named after Carl L. Sprenger, (1846-1917), owner of the Naples nursery which first received plants to grow.

• This species is the last of the tulips to flower.

• Deadhead the prolific seed-producing plants straight after flowering if you don't want any seedlings.

• The dried seed capsules of Tulipa sprengeri are also very decorative.

- Marianne Groothuis is curator of the Camellia Collection at Dunedin Botanic Garden.