Tulip Gardening – My Plans and Favourites

It’s this time of year that I think tulips. I plant such a lot of them that all my gardening seems to be tulip gardening!

Yet, although I’ve talked about them a lot in the past, for instance discussing in April and May my top tulips, I’ve never wholeheartedly focused on them as one of my top plants. So I thought it was time to remedy this.

Why Grow Tulips

There are so many things in tulips’ favour. They come in just about every colour imaginable. You can get soft romantic pinks, pale lemons and whites through to the hottest of reds and even almost blacks.

You can get tulips with different flower shapes – sleek, frothy, crinkled and even fringed petals – and heights. Some flower early in March and others flower as late as May. So if you plan your planting carefully you can have a full three months of these beauties in your garden – or in vases in your home!

Added to all this, they look superb in pots or in borders and they are so reliable. If you plant a lovely pot full of them now, or pop some in a sunny bed. You can be pretty sure that come April or May you will be rewarded with a robust, stunning bloom.

Technically a tulip is a perennial. But all the years or breeding done by growers to create ever more elaborate blooms and colours has meant that in my experience most varieties are only reliable for one year. You can get a second or even a third year out of some. But they are never as strong after that first year.

As a result, when it comes to my tulip gardening, I treat them as an annual. I may leave some in my tulip border to hope for a second year of blooms but I won’t bank on it. Instead I will mostly plant new bulbs every year. As for my containers, I will always plant these up with new bulbs.

Tulip Gardening – How to Plant Them

While garden centres seem to be full of tulip bulbs from September, I don’t plant mine until late Autumn. November is ideal but I can plant them even as late as December. Essentially you want to wait until after we’ve had some cold weather. That’s because it kills off a bacteria called tulip fire, which can otherwise distort the tulip flowers.

Ideally tulips should be in a sunny position in moist well-drained soil. That said, my tulip bed is under trees, so for most of the year it’s not that sunny at all. However, the trees are deciduous (they lose their leaves). That means for the crucial months when the tulips are growing, the bed is sunny! So if you have a similar spot, it will be fine for tulips.

Plant tulip bulbs pointy side up, in a hole which is three times the depth of the bulb – you can go deeper than that if you want. Indeed, if you are lasagne planting (where you plant layers of tulips in the same container) your lower layer will be a lot deeper than this. That won’t matter, they’ll come up fine.

Space the bulbs about 5cm apart. If, like me you are planting up a large area full of tulips, perhaps as part of a cutting garden, plant about 60 bulbs per square metre.

Tulip Gardening – in Containers

When it comes to planting tulips in containers, I sometime go for a single variety to make a big statement. For instance, I think Couleur Cardinal takes some beating. It’s red hot, flowers in April and May and its blooms are fragrant. However, if you are planting just one variety, do think about your container too. Ideally you want the combination of pot and plant to work well. For instance, this red tulip really has va va voom because it is in a bright blue pot.

Similarly, this peachy, corally, salmon pink beauty, Palestrina, looks gorgeous in a humble metal bucket.

For a more rustic wicker basket, I chose a robust looking dark plum/raspberry red, double flowered tulip called Black Hero. I felt the chunky thick stems would look good with the sturdy basket.

With tulips you can also have some fun and plant a combination of colours. For instance if you want a soft, romantic almost bridal affect, I think the the combination of tulips Synaeda Amor and Blue Wow takes some beating.

 

For a hotter combination you could try some of the really shocking pinks and blue black varieties. such as the tulips Dolls Minuet and Blue Diamond below.

Planting a combination of tulips also gives you scope to play with the shapes. For instance I really like  Tulip Green Star. It’s very striking, and at 50cm tall an elegant tulip. The petals form a five pointed, cream and green star. I think it looks super with the sleeker but similarly coloured Angel’s Wish.

I had this combination outside my front door a couple of years ago. It was a big hit.

Tulips in Beds

I plant up a raised bed full of tulips each year. This is when I really have fun with colour combinations. I first created the bed two years ago. For its first year I went for romantic pinks, pale lemons and whites. It looked so lovely. I used tulips such as the creamy Mondial, pale lemon Angel’s Wish, plus for the pink tulips Pretty Princess and Mystic Van Eijk.

For my tulips in 2022 I decided to mix up the colours and go for something hotter. My choices included Salmon Dynasty – a yellow tulip blushed with pinky tones. I mixed up with other colours including Verandi which has brilliant glowing deep red petals adorned with a thin edge of yellow and Kingsblood which is a very tall sleek red tulip. In amongst all this hotness, to cool things down a little, I had the weirdly crinkled, creamy tulip called Super Parrot.

Tips for Mass Planting

If you are planning a bed like this, my tip would be to be brave, be generous with your planting – 60 bulbs per square metre – and don’t try to place the different coloured bulbs so that they’re mixed. It will look artificial. Instead buy all the bulbs you want for the bed, then mix them all up in a wheelbarrow or large bucket.

Once they are jumbled, then place them in your planting area. Don’t worry that you may be planting five of the same colour near each other, just trust that your mixing in the bucket has worked.

Also, for speed I always dig out the whole area or at a least metre at a time. That way I am planting a heap of bulbs at once. It’s quicker and ensures they’re all at a good consistent depth.

My tulip choices for the bed in 2023, well I’ve gone for a different set of colours again, but I won’t be able to show you the tulips and whether it’s worked until next Spring. So watch this space!

Companion Plants

Of course, you can plant tulips with other flowers and create incredible effects. For instance, this combination of muscari and tulip takes some beating. I just wish I had the space to try it.

What I did have space for was white themed buckets featuring the gorgeous white fringed tulip called Swan Wings.

I combined it with hyacinths, muscari, and daffodils. It all looked really fresh and lovely.

You could create an elaborate combination of spring flowering plants in hotter colours. For instance how about this amazing planter below (not mine sadly) with irises, daffodils with a few snow drops to cool things down.

Or for something simpler, I think these tulips look lovely with violas and crocuses.

In essence when it comes to tulip gardening you can have a play. It’s such a sturdy, dazzler of a plant that as long as you follow the planting rules, and plant enough of them, they won’t let you down.

Happy gardening x