Tulip?

Oooh, Sheelagh, I have the same problem. Planted them in my best mate's garden two years ago and they have put on a fantastic display each Spring. In our case they are a brilliant red with yellow & black centres. The shape is exactly the same as yours so they have to be related. Fingers crossed someone can identify them :-)

Thwy are tulips, that is for sure.

I have heard you can get a kind of 'wild' orchid. I wonder if they are Wild Orchids? I'll look them up...

Can you pop another photo on, maybe one showing the front of the flower? It does look very much like an open tuplip. I had no luck searching through orchids, but I know I've seen something recently like this. I'll keep searching...

Think these are Lily flower tulips , looks like Kauffmann Tulips.
Xela your variety may be 'fusilier'. These grow 6-10" if smaller then theres an array of dwarf tulips they may be.

No, not Fusilier, those are red - I've got them in my garden! I think they are T. turkestanica.

Thanks for all the answers- these have a pink stripe on the outer petal and open up in a star shape - the petals close up when the sun goes in & sort of "cross over" like the tulips do. They are in a cluster (though I can't remember planting so many together and are about 8/10" high. I'll put another photo on so you can see the inside.

Xela s are red arent they?

Mine are certainly red, I have just taken snaps of them and posted them on GoY. We have nicknamed them the 'Blam' tulips As you can see from the photos (on my homepage) they are well past their best now, but mine grow about 8/10" in height and close when the sun goes down too until they begin to fade. I believe you may be right Bonkers about them being Kauffmann tulips, I may have bought them when I discovered and fell for the Lily-flower tulips.

We have one called Cynthis which looks like Sheelaghs.

Bingo!!! Thanks Owdboggy - I put in Cynthis - but it came up with some rather odd website on Google, so I tried Cynthia and there it is! Except the one pictured is red & yellow & amazing! Ours are much more subdued but just as pretty.
http://www.tulipworld.com/itemdesc.asp?item=Cynthia-Tulip&cat=Specialty&ic=4154

I tried again and found the following - it is the same as ours.
I can sleep tonight now <g>.

http://www.paghat.com/tulipacynthia.html

It is called 'Gladiolus Calianthus' Sheelagh. I have some planted but they have not flowered as yet.

Thanks Dolly - I've been on and searched to see if there are other varieties and found Gladiolus nanus "Nymph" at Gardening Express, so might have to order some for next spring. They certainly are eye-catching and make the border look lovely.
We had a lovely day out at the RHS Tatton Flower Show on Friday (although far too hot) and came home with some great ideas - all we need is a garden at least twice the size of the one we have........
Thanks again.
Sheelagh