Tulips for Instant Colour...


Try Tulipa 'Jan Reus' for instant hot colour in your garden...

According to Val Bourne of The Telegraph tulips should be planted after the end of October once temperatures fall. Her article continues however...

But if you missed your chance this year, there is another way to have tulips in the garden now: seek out ready-grown potfuls and sink them into the borders. They will do well (even in shade) and Beth Chatto has been using this system for years.

The most colourful tulips are the Triumphs - a group bred in Holland for the cut-flower trade. Excellent late-April varieties include the dark chrysanthemum crimson 'Jan Reus', the purple-veined white 'Shirley' and the beetroot-purple 'Negrita'.



Tulipa 'Shirley'

They come in a wide rainbow of colours, but a limited colour scheme probably works best in the garden. Add a few May-flowering tulips to follow on. Next year pot your own tulips between early November and late December. Place about nine tulip bulbs into a large pot and place in the sheltered lea of a wall - to prevent heavy rain from making the pots too wet. Protect from mice and squirrels.

Pam Tatam, of Hall Farm Nursery in Lincolnshire, also adds spring bedding to each potful so that wallflowers and forget-me-nots frame her tulips. As the bulbs fade, lift the whole pot. Feed the bulbs if you want to keep them - or start again.

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