Interesting Tulip!

A friend gave me a gift of some tulip bulbs a few years ago, and they have proven to be beautiful! However, this year, one or two opened out, and lo and behold, if half of the petals are not white and red, whilst the others are yellow and red!





Do tulips revert to an original 'species' I wonder? (I have loads of red tulips and yellow ones - I swear I used to have some beautiful dark Queen of the Night, which now appear to be red. I also seem to have planted two vibrant red tulips in my 'white' bed!)

This has made me consider the possibility of revertion - and whether these flouncy red and white ones are on their way back to uniformity?!

Any ideas?

 

Funny things Tulips. I heard somewhere that the stripy colouring is in fact caused by a virus, something like fireblight or similar name, which was actively encouraged by the Dutch Tulip breeders. This means that the colours are often unstable and can change from flower to flower. I'm sure someone will put me right if the above is all gobbledygook and I dreamed it up or something. :D