Few bulbs give back as much as the tulip. Plant them right in the autumn and they repay you with the boldest colour of the whole spring. This guide covers choosing your type, when and how deep to plant, growing tulips in pots, and what to do once the flowers are over.
HOW A TULIP GROWS
Tulips are not native to our shores, or indeed to Holland, but to Turkey and Asia Minor. There they grow in drifts on mountain slopes and in valleys. They meet cold winters, plenty of water in the spring, and dry baked summers. Everything a tulip needs to flower is packed inside before it ever reaches you. This year’s flower embryo and its food store are already there, waiting. The larger the bulb, the larger the flower it will give.
The bulbs do not start making roots until the cooler autumn temperatures arrive. Well worked, oxygenated soil helps that root system develop, and a good root system is what lets the tulip drink deeply when it starts into growth in the spring.
THE TYPES OF TULIP
Part of the joy is the sheer range. Here is how the main groups differ.
HOW WE CHOOSE OUR TULIPS
There are more than 4,500 registered tulips. Every year we see hundreds of potential new introductions, and only a few of them ever make it into the catalogue. The decision is driven by what makes a good garden plant. The quality of the flower, strong stems, and good parentage. Much of that foundation work happens touring the bulb fields and visiting breeders’ shows.
It may not look as sophisticated as you might imagine, but it is how a collection gets built. Everything here is supplied as a top size bulb, the same grade we exhibit at our shows.
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WHEN TO PLANT
November is the month that traditionally marks the start of tulip planting. It is the most beneficial time, because the soil has cooled enough to trigger a vigorous root system.
Tulips have perhaps the largest planting window of any bulb. Anytime from late autumn until Christmas is quite normal. If we could plant them in September life would be easy, but tulips need a cool soil temperature to get their roots going. Trials suggest that is at 10C and below, and those cooler temperatures also hold back any pests and diseases waiting in the ground.
There is no need to rush at the first cold morning, and no need to panic if December arrives before you have finished. Bulbs planted late still flower, they simply follow a week or two behind.
HOW DEEP TO PLANT
It has become fashionable for gardening pundits to say that if you want to keep tulips year on year you should plant them as deep as possible, some suggesting a foot down. Every time we hear this it fills us with despair.
A Cornell University study found that bulbs covered with 5 to 10cm of soil (2 to 4 inches) gave the most flowers over three years, while bulbs under 15cm gave fewer. So there is no need to dig to the centre of the earth.
If you are planting small groups for a single spring, treat them as annuals. A depth of 7 to 10cm (3 to 4 inches) is perfectly adequate and makes lifting easy afterwards, whereas if you plan to leave them in the ground you want to go a little deeper, 12 to 15cm (5 to 6 inches), which pushes more of the bulb’s energy into next year’s flower rather than into this year’s display. That is the whole trade.
Tulips also have a contractile root that pulls the bulb down to the depth it wants, which is why they earn the nickname burrowers.
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PLANTING THEM WELL
A few small habits make a noticeable difference.
Do not push the bulb firmly into the soil. The root tips sit just under the surface of the basal plate and are easily damaged. Set it down gently instead, flat base first and nose upward.
Mix some compost into the soil you dug out before you put it back. Treat any stated depth as a general guide, going shallower on heavy soil and deeper on light sandy ground.
The soil should be friable when you plant. Wet, clumpy soil works against good root growth, so if the ground is sodden it is better to wait a few days than to force it.
Rake the surface lightly once you have finished. Persistent heavy rain can leave a crust on bare cultivated soil, known as capping, and a light raking helps prevent it.
TULIPS IN POTS
Pots are where you have the most control. You can start them in a cooler spot, give them fresh compost, and keep them clear of the waterlogging that can spoil a border.
The early single and early double tulips are outstanding for pots. Their shorter stems stand up well in wind and rain. When you plant in containers, set the bulbs closer together than you would in the ground, which adds real impact to the display. Keep the compost evenly moist while they are in growth.
If you want a container to carry on giving, plant it in layers. Set the tulips deepest, then a shallower layer of muscari or crocus above them, so one pot flowers twice over.
WILL MY TULIPS COME BACK?
The honest answer is that some do and some do not, and it is less about your soil than the pundits pretend. We have seen tulips return for years in heavy clay and vanish from light loam. What matters most is a warm, dry, sunny position through the summer, when the bulb is quietly building next year’s flower inside itself.
For a formal display, where you want a uniform height and the largest flowers, always plant fresh bulbs. For an informal, naturalised look, tulips can be left where they are. Not all will flower every year, so top the stock up each autumn.
If you want the best odds of a tulip that returns, choose the Darwin hybrids, the apple orchard tulips. They start making their offset bulbs early, before they even flower, so those new bulbs get a long growing season. The fosteriana do well too, given a sunny spot where they can bake in summer.
COLOUR AND ARRANGEMENT
Plant individual varieties in clumps, drifts, or even soldier lines, depending on the spot. Choose them to highlight different aspects of the garden. Rather than a general mixture of many varieties, select two or three that work with each other in terms of colour and flowering time. That is usually more effective than a bag of everything.
The old adage that tulips never clash with each other remains true. Combining colours really works, and it can lift and brighten any area of the garden. The simplest way to make a combination work is to pick varieties from the same group, since a pair of triumphs or a pair of Darwin hybrids will open within days of each other, whereas a single early beside a late double can leave one variety over before the other has begun.
Take inspiration from gardens you have visited over the course of the year, and keep a photographic record if you can. Every garden is different, especially when it comes to sunny or shaded aspects.
Our La Symphony collection shows how well this can work. The varieties are all a sport of the tulip Jimmy, so they grow to the same height and flower at the same time, and their colours make a subtle blend rather than a competition.
AFTER THE FLOWERS FADE
When the show is over, snap off the spent heads so no energy goes into seed. Then let the foliage die back naturally. It looks untidy for a few weeks, but this is when the bulb does its real work. Six weeks from the last petal falling is the usual measure, and if the yellowing leaves offend you in a border, plant something that comes up through them, a hardy geranium or an alchemilla, rather than tying the foliage into knots or cutting it away while it is still green.
The new flower develops in three stages, first the petals, then the stamens, and finally the pistil. Any disturbance before the leaves have yellowed cuts that process short. In their native ground tulips enjoy long, hot, dry summers, and the closer you can copy that, the better they perform.
SPECIES TULIPS
The species are where nature started, mostly from western and central Asia. They are generally easy, and they thank you for a warm, dry location. Too much shade and the stems stretch, searching for the sun. They may lack the height to stand alone in a border, but they are invaluable in the rock garden, in pots, and as underplanting for their taller cousins. praestans Fusilier and Unicum each carry up to four flowers a bulb, and flower as early as mid-March.
WHAT CAN GO WRONG
Squirrels are the most common nuisance. They are very adept at finding newly planted bulbs, and they are attracted by the scent.
After planting, tamp the soil down lightly with the back of a rake or fork. Even a light sprinkle from a watering can helps put them off the scent, and scattering fallen leaves over the area is another useful disguise.
Chilli powder is an excellent defence against squirrels and other rodents. Where they are a real problem the surest answer is a square of chicken wire pegged flat over the planting and covered with an inch of soil, which the shoots grow through quite happily in spring and which you can lift and roll up once the display is over. They rarely disturb established plantings.
Tulip fire is the other worry, and it is far rarer than the internet suggests. Many people mistake weather damage from snow and hail for it. If your tulips are marked after a rough spring, the bulbs will almost certainly be fine. Tulip fire is much more than markings caused by bad weather.
The real thing announces itself early, with leaves that come through the soil twisted and distorted, brown spots of dead tissue that spread until whole areas look scorched, and in damp weather a grey furry mould over the top. As a sensible precaution, never compost tulip foliage or petals.
A NOTE ON SCENT
Tulips are not thought of as scented, but many are. The early single tulips were the first admired for it, and many species, early doubles, paeony flowered, parrot and lily flowering tulips carry a fragrance too. The most famous is the lily flowered Ballerina, which smells of orange blossom.
Scent in a tulip is easy to miss out in the garden. It needs sun on the petals before it carries at all. Cut a few stems for the house and you will pick it up straight away.
Lily flowered, and the one to smell
PLANT THESE WITH YOUR TULIPS
Tulips rarely go in alone. Muscari make one of the best underplantings there is, lifting a tulip scheme from below. Daffodils flower alongside them, stretching the display over more weeks. Alliums then take over as the tulips fade, so the border never goes quiet.
