Tulips
Tulip Bulbs
We are known for our tulip exhibits at our own show gardens and, for 52 consecutive years, at the Chelsea Flower Show, where our displays were awarded 70 Gold Medals. The bulbs we send to you are from the same stock as are Gold Medal winning exhibits. Throughout our history, we have never offered a sale. Doing this we feel would betray those who place their orders early. Within the tulip genus there is an enormous range of choice of height, colour, form, and flowering time. The uses to which you can put tulips are only limited by your imagination. Species tulips in woodland, small groups to draw the eye in a herbaceous border, impact show borders, stunning patio and container planting, soldier planting for formal beds, or planting in clumps to emphasise their individual beauty and form.
View our range of tulip bulbs for sale:
About Tulips
How we did Chelsea
The team would leave Bedfordshire for London in the evening and arrange 20,000 tulips of more than 150 varieties through the night, then be back on the stand at three in the morning for the final tweaks before judging at seven. The medals are left on your stand before the show opens, which makes for an anxious arrival on the Tuesday. Seventy times it was Gold.
A little history
Tulip acuminata is the oldest known tulip, first recorded in the 17th century. The long spidery petals are very reminiscent of the tulips favoured by the Ottomans, predating the traditional Dutch cupped shaped tulips. The species tulips are the ancestors of the larger and more extravagant tulips we enjoy today; many naturalise freely, and we have had batalinii Red Hunter in the borders at Pashley Manor for nearly 30 years.
