It’s tulip time again!
It is cold enough for these spring stunners,
IALWAYS think of tulips as the dahlias of spring. Both species are blessed with velvety petals in bold, vibrant colours that sing out from borders or containers, both happily share space with other plants, and both can be bought in assorted heights and with several shapes of flower.
If anything, tulips are even more versatile than dahlias because as bulbs, they can also be naturalised in lawns and rockeries, where dwarf species such as ‘Little Beauty’ and ‘Honky Tonk’ can be naturalised alongside fritillaries, snowdrops, narcissus and other spring delights.
Tulips give their best when planted in fertile, well-drained soil in full sun or light shade. Like all bulbs, they dislike heavy soil that sits wet as it encourages rotting, so if yours fits this description then either lighten it by digging in lots of well-rotted organic matter or coarse gravel before planting, or grow your tulips in containers.
If your soil is thin and poor, give it a boost with Growmore or chicken manure pellets before you start to plant.
Tulips are planted later than most other spring bulbs to reduce the risk of fungal disease tulip fire. You can further improve your chances of a good display by only using healthy bulbs and planting bulbs at two-three their own depth and roughly the width of two bulbs apart.
Bedding tulips – usually larger ones that you can buy in bulk – aren’t
wonderful repeat-flowerers and are best replaced each year, or lifted and stored over winter once their flowers and foliage have died back. You can improve their performance in subsequent years by deadheading once the petals fall.
Species tulips such as ‘Little Beauty’, ‘Red Riding Hood’ and the weird and wonderfully spiky ‘Acuminata’ can be left in the ground, where bulbs will swell and mature and improve their performance over time.
Protect planted bulbs from slugs and snails and larger pests such as squirrels and badgers.
Our garden already has a healthy tulip selection, so this year I’m planting a handful of mixed dwarf varieties – ‘Little Beauty’, ‘Persian Pearl’, ‘Helene’, ‘Honky Tonk’ and ‘Tinka’ – to bring some early colour in the light shade of a thriving Berberis shrub.