A SPRING RAINBOW
NOW IS THE TIME TO GET TULIP BULBS IN THE GROUND
NOVEMBER is tulip planting season – it’s time to get those little parcels of energy buried in the ground for the winter so you will have some gorgeous flowers to look forward to next spring.
Early spring bulbs such as snowdrops, daffodils, muscari, chionodoxa and crocus are predominantly blue, white or acid yellow in colour.
They have a fresh clean zingy appearance that announces winter is coming to an end and spring is upon us.
Tulips, however, are something else. They are the flamboyant bulbs in a rainbow array of colours from rich dark gems to bright reds and pinks, as well as dreamy pastels.
The petals can be streaked or blotched with accent colours and they come in an equally dazzling variation of shapes from classic vases to flouncy frills and parrots.
Another consideration is their flowering period as some varieties begin in early spring while others such as the late singles, for example the dusky ‘Queen of the Night’, will flower up to early summer.
When it comes to tulips, we are spoilt for choice and it can be fun to try out different varieties each year.
When planting, insert the bulb at a depth of two to three times its height. Tulips like free draining soil. In the Netherlands, which produces over three billion tulip bulbs annually, the soil is constantly being drained making it the perfect growing medium.
So if your soil is a very heavy clay, try adding some well rotted compost to improve the structure and drainage.
If you find digging into the soil hard or have limited space, they are perfect for pots and containers, either on their own or combined with other spring bulbs.
One of the drawbacks with tulips is that they never last as long as we would like – the flowering season is short enough.
As well as this, some of the highly bred bulbs that we buy at their peak do not always return as brightly in their second year.
For this reason, they are often treated as annuals, for example in public park planting schemes where fresh batches are planted every year.
I tend to leave them in situ and quite enjoy the faded, more natural looking second blooms.
However, if you are looking for longevity, the species varieties such as Tulipa clusiana will naturalise and spread.
A good one to look out for is ‘Peppermint Stick’ which is small with white and red petals.
The good old fashioned Darwin varieties, usually in red, pink or yellow, are also quite reliable and are sometimes called perennial tulips as they will perform for a few years.
You can also improve the chances of tulips reflowering if you lift them after flowering when all the foliage has died back and store them somewhere warm before replanting next autumn.