In the tulip breeding by crossing, to create a new cultivar normally takes around twenty years. In the process of hybridization, it is essential to chose as genitors the cultivars that possess good characteristics and are suitable to make a match. In order to identify potential genitors, at Botanical Garden from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, it has been studied two species of tulip (Tulipa praestans, T. tarda) and 13 cultivars (Aladdin, Annie Schilder, Artist, Ballerina, Don Quijote, Menton, Negritta,

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... riental Beauty, Queen of Night, Spring Green, Texas Flame, White Parrot, Wirosa). The analyzed traits were steam higher, diameter of floral steam, number of branch/steam, leaves length, leaves width, number of leaves/steam, cup floral length, diameter of floral cup, number of tepals/flower, response to Tulipa virus 1 attack. The biggest diameter of floral cup (47.2 mm) and the higher number of petals (tepals) in flower (13.4) had Wirosa variety. T. tarda was registered with the lowest value of the floral cup diameter (18.9 mm). The highest variability (s%=14.4) presented the width of the leaves, and the lowest variability (3.1%) had the number of tepals/flower. Several traits were registered with high values of coefficient of heritability in broad sense (eg. steam diameter, floral steam higher, flower diameter, number of tepals/flower). Cultivars like Alladin, Annie Schilder, Ballerina, Menton, Texas Flame, White Parrot and Wirosa can be used as genitors for creating new genotypes with great ornamental value, including bigger floral cups.