Infecting budding plants with Tulip Breaking Virus used to be the traditional way of creating variegated tulips.

Known as Tulip Breaking Virus this family of viruses causes the colour to be broken into stripes in the leaves of the flower itself. Traditionally, variegated tulips were the result of a virus infecting the plant.

There are records of variegated tulips going back to the 17th Century. Tulips come in a variety of colors but how about patterns? Why stick to a solid colour – as beautiful as it may be – when you can have stripes or more correctly variegations of different shades adorning your blooms?