“Great options for spring tulips” says Graham
It’s almost tulip ordering time, and the vast choice available can seem bewildering, Graham Rice reveals the best bets for borders, pots, naturalising – and even scent
“Some wild species will settle down and multiply”
ORDER now + plant in November = guaranteed flowers in April. That’s the simple tulip equation. And what more elegant way to usher in the spring than with beds, borders and containers billowing with these bulbous beauties. The problem is choosing – there are just so many!
My advice is not to worry about the fact that the RHS lists almost 4,000 different tulips, classified into too many subgroups to get your head around. The first thing to remember is that, like daffodils, the flower bud for next season is already formed deep inside your new tulip bulbs, just waiting to grow. You have to be an unusually hopeless gardener to stop a tulip flowering, and success ultimately comes down to just three things: choosing the right variety for the situation; choosing colours that go well together (in harmony or in contrast); and knowing what to do with them after they’ve flowered.
Tall tulips such as ‘Apeldoorn’ (cherry red) and ‘Sorbet’ (white, flamed in red) are elegant and colourful
but easily blown over during spring storms; plant these for seasonal colour in a sheltered space - border or large container - and interplant with wallflowers. Doing so will not only create sparkling colour combinations, but also give them support. Dwarf Greigii and Kaufmanniana tulips can go at the front of exposed borders, in window boxes and in raised beds.
As for colours and planting partnerships? Well, here you can indulge your own taste. Along with the obvious (daffodils and other tulips), you can create more unusual combinations. Try tulips with wallflowers, doronicums, euphorbias, purple fennel and, especially, forget-me-nots. The one colour not available in tulips is true blue, so forget-me-nots make ideal bed mates. Do bear in mind height when choosing your forget-me-nots, though… you don’t want to overwhelm the tulips.
Year after year?
Tulips have a reputation for being oneyear wonders. Frankly, I don’t waste time attempting to coax another year’s flowering out of most of them. The exceptions are dwarf rock garden types and some wild species, which settle down and multiply (one species from southern Europe has even been growing wild in Britain since 1790!). These should be fed after flowering.
And here’s something we rarely associate with tulips: fragrance. A small number are scented and three of my alltime favourites – the double-flowered pink ‘Angelique’, the single peach and white ‘Apricot Beauty’ and the yellow lily-flowered tulip ‘West Point’ – smell every bit as appealing as they look. I’ve already got my order in.