Wild tulips in Switzerland? Is there! In the Valais near Grengiols there are three color variations. An absolute highlight together with the unique mountain panorama.
by Marc Gottwald
Wild tulips in Switzerland
does it exist
Almost everyone asks this question. Rightly so! After all, Holland is the only country that comes to mind when you think of tulips.
You can see how beautiful these plants are in the pictures.
And the exciting thing: It is a type of tulip with a total of three color variations, which is only available in Grengiols. That means it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. In technical terms, such plants or animals that only occur in one place are called “endemics”. You can find out what the reasons could be in the exciting and exclusive interview with the ecologist Sabrina Gurten.
It is almost crazy that, according to the Grengiols Tulip Guild, the tulip was not discovered as an independent species until the middle of the 20th century by the Basel botanist Eduard Thommen.
Wild tulips + mountain panorama = pure place of power
Combined with the imposing mountain panorama, the tulip fields of Grengiols become a place of pure power.
You can relax well on a bench, because the enjoyment of the blooming fields combined with the snow-white mountain peaks lets everyone start dreaming and completely forget the worries of everyday life.
But that’s not all: numerous poor meadows with rare and strictly protected orchids (e.g. the yellow-flowering Orchis Dactylorhiza Sambucina) and violet irises are a paradise.
Tulips almost extinct
As with many plants and animals, the intensification of agriculture is making life difficult for tulips.
The tulips grow almost exclusively accompanied by winter rye fields and with the disappearance of the rye fields, the tulips also almost completely disappeared before being rescued by ProNatura.
The problem is that the tulips with the seed take 7 years to grow before they germinate. A faster propagation method is via the tulip bulbs. However, these must be separated from the mother plant, which is done by the plow when rye cultivation.
It is not for nothing that the former guild master of Grengiols says: “The Grengiols tulip is really a real Valaisian: one with a hard “head” that offers resistance.”
Thanks to the Tulip Guild, the stock has now returned to around 3,000 tulips, which bloom every year in mid-May. An absolute highlight! To keep it that way, it is forbidden to enter the fields (also to take photos) or to pick the plants.
The most important things in brief
Tulips bloom mid-May to early June with peak bloom in mid-May (depending on the weather)
It is strictly forbidden to pick tulips or enter the fields (even for photos)
Arrival:Grengiols can be reached by public transport by train in about 20 minutes on foot (Grengiols stop), cars can be parked directly in Grengiols.
Food: Restaurant Grengjerstube with traditional Swiss food
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