DUTCH MASTERS

Brian’s already dreaming about spring again when he will be able to see colourful displays of tulips

Over the years I’ve grown to love tulips more and more. They give me not one but two periods of joy during the year. The obvious time is when they flower in April and May, in what feels like the starting signal proper to the year’s garden display. But they also cheer me up just now, during these dull, wet and windy autumn days, sending my brain into an excited frenzy as I flick through the bulb catalogues dreaming up what my colourful displays will be like next spring.

I only really started getting into tulips a few years ago; they were the first selection of flowers I could pick from the cut flower plot.

Now I’m hooked and next year I’m looking to make a display of tulips in their own right.

At first I was so excited by the many different groups of tulip you could get that I wanted to grow a variety of each.

My garden looked a bit higgledy-piggledy but it was a great way to learn about them all and see the beautiful differences between them.

Peony tulips with large double blooms that resemble the flowers after which they are named, and fringed tulips, which have a compact habit, vibrant and colourful petals with fringed edges that give a ruffled effect.

The parrot group would be better known as the party tulips in my opinion; their fringed and ruffled flowers are decorated with vivid flame-like splashes, stripes or feathery markings formed in the shape of a cup.

If you are looking to add a touch of class and elegance to your garden then look no further than the lily-flowering group of tulips.

These have slender, flute-shaped flowers that open up bending over backwards, in an action known as reflexing.

For next year’s display I’m planning on taking a different approach, focusing on colour and the different combinations that I can have within them.

I’m basing my scheme around the one main colour that will blend with varieties of complementary colours.

The bulb specialists in their catalogues often help us do so by suggesting combinations for us, which was a good starting point for me.

Tulip “Abu Hassan” has rich deep red blooms with yellow edges.

This two-toned flower then opens up the doors to combine this with varieties of the same colours.

This in turn allows us to bring in varieties of maroon, purple, pink, cream, white and green, all individually different but when seen en masse produce a balanced combination.

We’ve been preparing and planting our next year’s spring bulb show of daffodils, crocus, camassia and iris since September, but waiting until November when the soil is slightly cooler to plant out tulips is advised.

This delay may only be by a few weeks but is usually enough to avoid the fungal diseases that can effect tulip bulbs, which are more active when the soil temperature is warmer.

This is getting me right in the mood for May 2022 when I will be joining the guests of Emerald Cruises for an exclusive DC Thomson Travel river cruise – the Blooms of Holland and Belgium.

One of our stops will be to Keukenhof Gardens to see a proper display of millions of spring flowering bulbs.

We’ll be taking in a tour of the gardens where together we’ll be looking at all the different planting styles and combinations the Dutch masters have come up.

No doubt we’ll learn a trick or two from them to take away and try at home ourselves.

I’m already trying to look at ways of fitting in a million bulbs into my own front garden.

A bloom-packed tulip field, which is a common spring sight in Holland.

Idyllic tulips in Zaanse Schans, Holland, with a backdrop of windmills.

Tulips can help bring any garden to life, however modest it might be.