Nine heads are better than one (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Nine heads are better than one

A CHESTERTON pensioner has managed to grow a rare botanical specimen - a flower with nine heads.

Margaret Tanner made the find when her tulips began to sprout in their pot.

She said: "When it started budding I thought to myself, 'I can't believe it's got nine heads'. I showed several of my friends and they couldn't believe it either."

Margaret thinks her hydra-like plant may be the offspring of some bulbs she bought on a trip to Holland last year.

The bulbs have provided at bumper crop of multi-headed blooms, as well as the nine-headed flower, Margaret also has a five-headed flower.

Although one of the heads had fallen from the tulip with nine heads by the time The Standard's photographer arrived at Margaret's house, we still managed to capture this floral rarity.

Dr Christopher Whitehouse, a botanist at the Royal Horticultural Society confirmed that a tulip with nine flower heads was a rare occurrence.

He said: "There are two reasons why tulips can be multi-headed. Some tulip cultivars, such as those derived from Tulipa praestans like 'Fusilier', are naturally multi-headed. They occasionally get included in other batches by mistake.

"The second reason is due to aberrant flower development in normally single-headed cultivars. This may be caused by unusual conditions during flower bud development in the previous season, or possibly even random mutation."

Dr Whitehouse went on to explain the multi- headed flower phenomenon is rarely repeated the next year in the same plant.

He also said Mrs Tanner's flower is probably from a species similar to one of the normally single-headed cultivars.

"Although we get a number of enquiries each year about multi-headed tulips," he said.

"They are normally just for one or two extra flowers, not like this nine-headed monster.

Meanwhile garden-mad Margaret hoping for more success with her tulips for next year.

"I'm leaving the bulbs in," she said. "So I'll have to see whether they grow again."