Top tips from the tulip festivals and where to see tulips at their best
Now that we’re venturing out, despite the stop-start spring, it’s time to pay homage to the glorious tulip – those Asian beauties transformed by generations of dedicated plant breeders in the Netherlands. There will be plenty of inspiration: many gardens major on tulips because they’re the horti equivalent of a starting gun: they announce that spring is about to go full tilt into summer.
If you want to learn, take a notebook, a camera or phone, and then cherry-pick your favourite varieties from the hundreds on offer. You’ll learn how to blend colour and form with artistry, whether you want a jewel-box tapestry suited to a Persian rug, or a soft swath of gentle colour to underpin cherry blossom.
You’ll also discover your bête noires – tulips that make you blink in disbelief – and that’s equally useful because you can make sure they never end up in your garden! If you simply want to drink in the colour, that’s fine too.
The golden rule for mixing a tulip recipe is to keep it simple, like baking a cake. The basic ingredient that I normally recommend is a group named (appropriately) the Triumphs. These shorter tulips flower in the second half of April; their vibrant egg-shaped blooms hold their shape and resist the weather.
As they begin to fade, later-flowering tulips float above them and normally last until mid-May. These include lily-flowered tulips with hourglass figures, fringed tulips that look as though ice crystals have been sprinkled along the edges of their petals and also some elegant singles.
These all slot into borders well, but heavy-headed tulips swoon a little too enthusiastically and they will greet the ground, so I prefer to plant parrots and artichoke-headed doubles in pots. Tulip flowers go through several incarnations, starting off as demure and ending up positively decadent, and that’s part of their enduring charm.
Best places to see tulips
Ormesby Hall, Yorkshire
Gardener David Husband has embarked on planting thousands of tulips in this four-acre garden, using concentrated bursts of colour. Visitors are returning again and again (nationaltrust.org.uk; 01642 324188).
David’s tip
Flamed late-April Triumph varieties create a soft swirl of colour. I use a mixture of ‘Flaming Flag Cream’, ‘Flaming Flag Soft Pink’ and ‘Flaming Flag Soft Yellow’. A carpet of catmint (nepeta) follows.
Burnby Hall, Yorkshire
Head gardener Jill Ward plants up to 80 single-variety containers, using Darwin hybrids or May-flowering varieties. Tried and tested border favourites include ‘Couleur Cardinal’, a long-stemmed plummy red with dark shading, and the sooty-red ‘National Velvet’ (burnbyhallgardens.com; 01759 307541)
Jill’s tip
Pick a stem of each variety when they’re flowering, and play around with them. This is how I plan colour combinations for next year. Check the heights too.
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
Head gardener John Wood combines orange-blossom scented, tazetta narcissi, ‘Winston Churchill’ and ‘Cheerfulness’, with purple tulips that include ‘Flaming Flag’ and ‘Burgundy’ (nationaltrust.org; 01962 771305).
John’s tip
Thread pastel-coloured tulips under pink and white cherry blossom. The double, long-lasting ‘Angelique’ is a favourite here.
Errdig, Wales
Long-time head gardener Glyn Smith admits going for “honest vulgarity” and “in-your-face colour”. Favourites include the gleaming gold ‘Orange Lion’ and the red-flamed orange ‘Golden Smiles’ (nationaltrust.org.uk; 01978 355314).
Glyn’s tip
Use an underplanting of pansies to create contrast. Orange and yellow tulips glow above purple pansies, or use white pansies with pearlescent pink ‘Menton’ and deep purple ‘Recreado’.
Ulting Wick, Essex NGS tulip openings April 29
Philippa Burrough’s muntjac problem means that her tulips have to be wire-caged, although these are removed before visitors arrive. This year’s theme relies on 1,400 pink tulips in each large bed (ultingwickgarden.co.uk).
Philippa’s tip
Perennials with handsome foliage make good companions. The dainty blue sprays of Brunnera macrophylla set off orange tulips. Tellima grandiflora foliage has hints of zingy lime-green that goes with all tulips, and purple and pink tulips pick up the maroon flowers and zoned foliage of Geranium phaeum var. phaeum ‘Samobor’.
Emmetts Garden, Kent
Newly appointed head gardener Ignacio Silva is in charge of this Edwardian plantsman’s garden in the High Weald. The 6,000 tulips in this year’s meadow were inspired by an early 20th-century glass slide showing tulips under the Japanese cherry ‘Fugenzo’ (nationaltrust.org.uk; 01732 868381).
Ignacio’s tip
Good pink tulips are few and far between, but they need a sultry partner. Here the excellent ‘Pink Diamond’ mingles with ‘Queen of Night’.
Chenies Manor, Buckinghamshire
Tulip Festival April 27 and May 2
Owner Boo MacLeod Matthews uses 20,000 tulips in her formal garden of rooms, set around a Tudor mansion. The Sunken Garden, a jewel-box masterclass of tulips, scented wallflowers and pink myosotis, is just like an Elizabethan tapestry. You’ll see lots of tulip varieties – with labels (cheniesmanorhouse.co.uk; 01494 762888).
Boo’s tip
After the tulips come out, dahlias go in. Both come from Rose Cottage Plants (who will be here on May 2) because owner Anne Barnard has an extremely good eye for form and colour.
Pashley Manor, Kent Tulip Festival until May 4
Greg Ovenden uses top-class tulip bulbs supplied by Bloms, linking the colours to his permanent planting. Pink and white tulips flower beneath blue wisteria; the swimming pool is swathed in purple and blues and the rectangular rose borders, each planted with one single variety, create a chessboard (pashleymanorgardens.com; 01580 200888).
Greg’s tip
White can look stark in a sunny border, but it is luminescent in shadier areas where green foliage often dominates. ‘Mount Tacoma’, a double white, is superb in borders or a pot.
Ham House, Richmond
In this organically principled garden, head gardener Rosie Fyles uses bright Darwin hybrids in sunny borders, but subtler green-streaked viridifloras ‘Spring Green’ and ‘Night Rider’ in semi-shade (nationaltrust.org.uk; 020 8940 1950).
Rosie’s tip
Small species tulips jewel the grass here, with crocus and muscari. The foliage is left for two months or more, to allow the bulbs to replenish. Good tulip returners are Tulipa turkestanica, T. tarda, T. linifolia and T. bakerii ‘Lilac Wonder’. Leave all species to self-seed
Hever Castle
Exuberant head gardener Neil Miller has planted 40,000 tulips, many interplanted with wallflowers. An area close to the Golden Staircase combines red and yellow tulips designed to chime with the red and yellow cups of pheasant’s eye narcissi (hevercastle.co.uk; 01732 861712)
Neil’s tip
Be adventurous and go for avant-garde varieties in containers, such as the red, green and yellow Parrot tulip ‘Rasta’. It’s raised off the ground in a pot, so you can see all the detail.
Montacute House, Somerset
Montacute’s opulent history is reflected in head gardener Chris Gaskin’s exuberant colour schemes. He uses almost-perpetual Darwin hybrids, adding 1,000 more every year, and these stay in the ground. Thousands of others are also planted, some in pots, because he aims for an “eye-popping wallop” of colour (nationaltrust.org.uk; 01935 823289).
Chris’s tip
Named tulips (i.e. with a variety name, such as ‘Ballerina’) are hybrids so they won’t come true from seed. Deadhead by removing the whole stem after flowering. Leave the leaves to recharge the bulb, but always gather up the petals on the ground as they encourage tulip fire.
Bulb suppliers
In September contact these specialist suppliers for the first glimpse of their bulb catalogues and get your order in early – certain varieties sell out fast. But don’t plant bulbs too soon, store them in a cool spot until November:
How to put on a tulip festival at home
Aim for a month of colour
Concentrate on growing April- and May-flowering tulips. You’ll have four weeks of colour and also avoid the flat-topped “soldiers on parade” look of earlier tulips, which are shorter. Left in the ground, many tulips will flower again the following year with smaller flowers, which adds a certain charm.
Time it right
Reliably perennial Darwin hybrids have large flowers that open wide in early April, to reveal the black centres. The sunset-inspired chameleon ‘Daydream’ is one of the best, but there are clear reds, yellows and oranges.
Colourful Triumph tulips, bred for the cut flower market, flower in the second half of April. They are shorter, with weather-resistant, egg-shaped flowers and should be an essential part of any tulip recipe. ‘Paul Scherer’ comes in shades of blackcurrant.
Extend the excitement in your borders into May with Single and Double Late, Fringed and Lily-flowered tulips – but grow Parrot tulips in containers where they can swoon beautifully without falling over.
Pick a colour scheme
A strong colour scheme looks good and is more economical (if you buy larger quantities of one variety, the price per bulb comes down). So choose a theme and get to work early: order tulips in 50s or 100s in August, because the best go quickly.
Dark tulips need a paler partner or it’s hard to pick them out. There are far more peachy browns than pinks, although the vivid pink ‘Barcelona’ is excellent.
Examine the flames and shading on individual flowers: ‘Prinses Irene’, an early April tulip with burnt-orange flowers, is flamed in purple so it works well with dark sultry tulips.
Ormesby Hall precede the superb ‘Paul Scherer’ with Crocus ‘Orange Monarch’ for the same sunset-orange and thunder-purple colouring.
Go big with containers
Experiment when planting up pots. Use one variety per pot then group pots together for impact.
Avoid wood-based compost – my bulbs have struggled in it. Opt for coir or wool-based instead. The team at Burnby Hall fill the bottom third of pots with their homemade garden compost. They reuse double-skinned plastic pots in a terracotta shade that look like the real thing from a distance.
Always cover pots with chicken wire to prevent squirrel damage and place pots in the lea of the house to prevent bulbs from becoming waterlogged before they root. Pot feet are advisable too.
Underplant for impact
Wallflowers, forget-me-nots and pansies are support acts used by many head gardeners to cover bare soil between tulips. Order plug plants of these in September and grow them on.
Tulips in grass
Ormesby Hall leave their tulips in borders for an average of two years before lifting and replanting them into a meadow setting. ‘Queen of Night’ provides a piano-key contrast to late pale narcissi. Tulipa sylvestris naturalises reasonably well; this wilding has arching, dark stems topped with green buds that gradually open and turn buttercup yellow. Marry it with blue scillas and muscari and top it up every year or so.
Beware tulip fire
This fungal disease (Botrytis tulipae) proliferates in warm, damp conditions, so leave any tulip planting until November or December, when temperatures are lower. Plant to a depth of 10cm.
Tulipmania
Horseshoe Farm Flowers, Lancaster
Pick your own flowers, two-hour session, £25. Ticket includes a farm tour, question time and a bucket of flowers to take home. Maximum 35 stems (horseshoefarmflowers.co.uk)
Mill Pond Flower Farm, Berwickshire
The cut-your-own-flowers season opened on April 24. Prices per bucket range from £18 to £55, with each session lasting two hours (millpondflowerfarm.co.uk)
Farrington Farm Shop, Bristol
Visit rows and rows of beautiful tulips at the flower farm in late April/early May. Tickets and more information coming soon (farringtons.co.uk)
Little Park Flowers, West Berkshire
Join the Spotlight on Tulips workshop (May 14, £55) and take home a hand-tied bunch harvested from the flower patch (littleparkflowers.co.uk)
This article is kept updated with the latest information.
