Creating A Tulip Bed – See How I’m Doing

I thought I’d update you on one of my projects from last year – creating a tulip bed.

A Quick Description of the Area

The bed has been created in an area which up to now, I’m ashamed to say I’ve rather neglected. I think that’s for a number of reasons. Firstly it’s right at the bottom of my garden, out of view. So, with many more borders (and gardening problems) closer to hand, it has been all too easy to overlook.

The area butts up against our back wall which houses our two ugly sheds. It also sits between our bonfire area and a sprawling compost heap.

So it has always felt (and looked) like a ‘working’ bit of the garden.

Added to all of this, the bed has a silver birch growing growing slap bang in the middle of it. The bed also backs on to a lovely little copse in the field behind our garden. So the bed is in sun in Spring and early Summer. However, once the trees really get going it’s a bit shaded.

The whole thing felt too tricky to think about and so dropped to the bottom of my ‘to do’ list. Instead, I’ve simply used it as a place to stick plants which needed a temporary home. In short, the bed looked very unplanned – and unloved!

All this changed last September when I gave myself a stiff talking to. I decided to come up with a plan to do the area justice (hopefully).

Access Issues

The bed is about three metres deep and five metres wide, so it’s a generous area to work with. However, as it’s raised, and flanked on all sides, bar the front, by other things. Accessing it, without walking on it is extremely tricky, it involves balancing on its surrounding walls. I suppose I could garden the left hand side of it by standing thigh-deep in my compost heap! But even I draw the line somewhere!

So, whatever scheme I came up with would need to be low maintenance but high impact.

I also wanted to be a little experimental, and I wanted to solve a conundrum which I’ve had for ages. What to do with all the tulips which I grow in pots?

I hate throwing them out, but have no where to put them after they’ve bloomed. Lifting and drying them is out of the question; I just don’t have the patience to do that – and tulips left in pots don’t tend to do well.

This is where the germ of an idea for creating a tulip bed began to form. What if I dedicated the raised bed to bulbs – especially tulips? After all as a raised area, it would have good drainage. I could plant it up with new tulip bulbs, and add to the area my old bulbs once they’d done their stuff in my pots. Giving them a further few years of life.

Creating A Tulip Bed – The Plants

Tulips

Obviously creating a tulip bed involves tulips. Lot’s of them! Indeed the whole middle section, the entire length of the 5 metre bed is tulips.

Although there’s an incredible array of tulip colours and shapes, I’ve gone for predominantly the yellow white tulip called Angel’s Wish plus the gorgeous, blowsy paeony-like Mondial. That’s because both cope with a bit of shade, and as the bed is at a distance, I felt having a large amount of the pale yellow and almost white – tulips would have visual impact, especially in low light.

Angel’s Wish Tulip has also been awarded the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society, which was important, as I wanted my mainstay of the bed to be robust! I also have Mondial in my arc of clematis pots which lead down to the area, so I feel there’s a sense of continuity, taking you down to the bottom of the garden.

Although that adds up to a lot of Mondial, don’t panic, I haven’t boringly just gone for one tulip when creating a tulip bed! I’ve also planted in the bed the red hot Couleur Cardinal.

Plus the pink tulips Pretty Princess and Mystic Van Eijk.

Once I got going I couldn’t stop! I also stuck in any other random tulip bulbs I had left over after planting up this year’s containers, plus a few old bulbs from last year’s pots.

So, to be honest, any number of other colours could pop up. That really doesn’t matter as ultimately the area is going to be home to all of the spent tulips from my containers – and I’ve all sorts of colours in those! If it all ends up a colourful jumble when you get up close, well that’s fine with me.

Irises

If the raised bed was nothing but tulips there would only be interest for three months of the year from March – May. So to extend the flowering period, I’ve also planted Iris Carmen which blooms in May and June at the front of the border.

Althought it’s delicately coloured, (white and pale lavender) this iris is quite statuesque, growing about 50cm tall. So I’m hoping, it will have impact from a distance, a key consideration for an area which is at the bottom of my garden. It’s growing quite healthily, but I won’t know if it’s a success for another month or so – exciting!

Alliums

I’ve also planted a swathe of Allium Purple Sensation the entire length of the bed. They’re towards the back as they grow 1 metre tall. These will provide further colour in May and June. They will also provide continuity by linking with a semi shaded border (pictured below) which is rammed with alliums and runs near to the new tulip bed.

Grasses

I had a lovely grass in a pot which needed re-housing, so I have put that at the back of the bed – sorry I’m not sure which one it is, but it provides year round interest.

To continue the grass theme at the rear of the raised bed I’ve planted three further grasses – all the Festuca Mairei variety.

There are lots of reasons why I’ve gone for this one. It’s evergreen – a lovely khaki colour, grows about 3 feet tall, has nice tidy foliage and it can cope with drought. This is important as I’m not sure how much rain will get onto the bed once the trees are out. Festuca Mairei is indeed my kind of plant; it’s not fussy about the type of soil it is in and is virtually trouble free! Also, I think it will look lovely (once fully grown) with the Alliums growing amongst its – well that’s the theory. Another thing I’ll have to wait and see about as the grasses are only small at the moment!

Base Layer

I can’t easily access this bed to weed it. So when creating a tulip bed on this site I also had to think of a way of keeping weeds to a minimum. To do this I’ve planted Stachys Byzantina all along the base of the bed. Regular readers of my blog will know that I love this plant. I think it’s such a wonderful foil to other plants – and bees love it. So I have a lot of it in my garden.

As a result I was able to very easily lift bits of stachys (or lambs ear as it’s often called) from other beds and dot it across my new tulip bed. With 15 square metres of bed to eventually cover this was a key consideration as I didn’t want to spend a small fortune on ground cover plants. Anyway, the stachys has really settled in beautifully and I think will provide a lovely soft base once the bulbs have finished.

Late Interest

To try and extend the flowering season once the alliums have finished, I’ve also planted 6 Sedums Autumn Joy towards the front of the bed. I’ve gone for this plant as it offers almost 6 months of interest, bees love it and it’s easy to grow. If you want other bee friendly plants check out this blog.

However – and there’s a big however with this sedum – it likes full sun. And that’s not really what this bed offers. Sure the sedum is at the front of the bed, so it may just get enough sun, but I’m not sure.

So I’m going to see how it gets on and if the sedum is unhappy, I’ll rescue it! Again, the sedum has come from other parts of my garden (sedum is so easy to divide). So it won’t cost me anything if it fails, but I so hope it works, as this particular sedum looks utterly stunning with the stachys, and if it fails, my raised bed will be the poorer looking for it. So fingers crossed.

Creating a Tulip Bed – Ongoing Maintenance

Other than devising the planting for the bed, when creating a tulip bed I’ve also had to think about maintenance. This is going to be my routine:

Deadheading

I’ll deadhead the tulips in the bed once the flowers are over, I’ll leave the stalks and leaves in place to photosynthesise as this feeds the bulbs for next year. This usually takes about 6 weeks, I’ll then gently clear away the spent, brown leaves.

I won’t touch the alliums as I think the heads, once flowering is over, still look wonderful over Autumn and Winter, providing shape and structure.

Feeding

In terms of feeding my tulips, I’ve read so many pieces of advice that I’m thoroughly confused. I’m going to go for the most logical (to me) approach. Once they’ve finished flowering, and have been deadheaded, I’ll feed the leaves with a liqud feed (tomorite) while the leaves are feeding the bulb. I may also throw some slow release fertiliser onto the bed in Autumn and something extra in Spring to give everything a boost. I’m not completely sure. It will probably be down to whether I remember.

Replenishing

I will also put the old tulip bulbs from my current containers (like those below) into the bed. I’ll move them once the flowering is done but while they still have their leaves, moving them really carefully and planting them good and deep.

Whilst the alliums and irises should thrive, no matter how well I look after them, my tulips will eventually become less productive. So I will replenish the bed each year by planting some additional, brand new bulbs. I’ll plant these nice and deep – Sarah Raven suggests 12 inches and I think that’s good advice. I won’t do this until November or even December. It’s important to wait until it has been good and cold as you want the frosts to kill off any Tulip Fire disease which may lurk in the ground.

Creating a Tulip Bed – So Far So Good I Think

So that’s it. As I say it’s still a work in progress, and some of my ideas may not work out, but that’s all part of the excitement isn’t it! So all that remains is for me to show you a before and after…

I’m really chuffed. A rather neglected part of my garden, is now a genuine destination point and a source of real joy. ‘Thank you’ lovely tulips.