The garden today is saturated with the colours of tulips. Every autumn after days of back breaking work I declare that there will be no more bulb planting. Every spring I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the tulips and start to plan my autumn bulb order as the tulips begin to shed their beautiful petals.
Today I would like to share with you a few photos of my favourite tulip moments over the last few weeks.
Tulip Angelique.
Double tulip Maureen.
A mix of spring bulbs outside my kitchen window.
Lily tulip Ballerina.
Lily tulip White Elegance.
Tulips with wallflowers.
Tulip Carnival de Nice.
Fringed tulip Swan Wings.
Tulips conditioned for an arrangement.
After the beauty of the flowers, the practicalities. I will make notes now about which tulips I would like to order in my garden notebook. The list will be finalised in August and will include old favourites and always one or two that I have not grown before. I never remove tulips from beds after flowering, but simply deadhead and leave them to die back. My beds are planned by colour and every year I will add fresh tulips to each bed, so that even if the old ones fail to return I will have some new blood in the bed. My order will be placed by early September and I will plant the tulips deeply in November as the last job of the year. As well as topping up the beds I will fill lots of black plastic pots and containers with a variety of tulips, so that I can create a great display around the house in the spring. I tend not to plant tulips in containers with other bulbs as I find I can pack the tulips closer and they flower more strongly when planted on their own.
Once the planting is over the long wait for their appearance begins and every year the tulip season is over far too quickly!