My Cardinal sin: For tulips, I’m a scarlet (and white) woman
Tulips can become an obsession, says Agnes Stevenson, who confesses to giving up her usual love of oranges and purples for reds and white
It is that time when decisions have to be made about which tulips to plant. After weeks of poring over the catalogues in an attempt to put together a winning combination of oranges and purples I made a last-minute swerve and ended up going in another direction.
I’ve ordered enough of the scarlet tulip,‘couleur Cardinal’ to plant up almost every pot in the garden and, to add a bit of fizz to the show, they’ll be combined with ‘Marilyn’, a glamorous, lily-flowered white tulip, shot through with red, like raspberry ripple ice cream.
There is a word for tulip obsession – tulipomania – and it reached such heights in 17th Century Holland that whole fortunes changed hands for single bulbs.
I can understand that sort of passion. Tulips occupy my attention more than all the other plants in the garden and when I’m not ordering from specialist suppliers I’m picking up bags of bulbs in cheerful colours every time I pop into the supermarket.
Most years in April my garden could rival the Keukenhof, the Dutch park where each year the commercial growers stage an astonishing display showcasing the latest varieties as well as the many tried-and-tested favourites that have been brightening our gardens for decades.
Tulips arrived in Europe from the Middle East and I once met a fellow enthusiast who had trekked Afghanistan in search of the wild tulips from which all other tulips have been bred.
That was the same gardener who told me that the secret of creating a show-stopping display was to plant early tulips in shadier areas and late tulips in sunny spots, with the result that they all flowered over one gorgeous spell of six weeks.
Anothr tip is to plant them deep – at least twice their own depth – and don’t let them dry out while they are in the soil.
This is important to remember if you are growing yours in pots as drying out after planting will seriously affect flowering. Some growers suggest watering the bulbs before covering them with compost and I sometimes follow this advice if I am planting during a dry spell.
If you are growing bulbs in pots then leave enough room at the top to add wallflowers, winter pansies or anything that will add a spot of colour during the winter months. I grow hardy cyclamen this way, replanting the tubers in the garden once the flowers start to go over.
Meanwhile, if you are also planning on growing hyacinths alongside your tulips, then try to get your hands on those from the Festival series. These are a bit looser and more natural looking than the usual kinds, making them easier to incorporate into mixed displays.
I’ll eventually get around to picking which hyacinths to plant, but not before I’ve worked my way through the tulip catalogues. I’ve got a few orders still to place before this year’s stocks run low.