Spring bulbs part 3

Tulips

Traditionally, when the English climate was more reliable, the natural order of spring bulbs was first snowdrops, followed by crocus, then daffodils and lastly tulips. However the climate changes experienced in recent years have resulted in changes in the normal pattern. This is especially evident this year since we have seen some varieties of tulip in flower before the daffodils or at the same time. Our harsh and prolonged winter has meant that for a number of varieties there has been insufficient growing time so the stems are much shorter than usual and in some cases flowers are appearing at ground level.

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However, in the normal run of things the next bulbs we would be seeing in our gardens are the tulips. Although tulips are usually associated with Holland, they originally came from Turkey and the Middle  East and are in fact named after the Ottoman headdress ‘ Toliban’. This popular flower was once considered to be as precious as gems in the Dutch markets and in seventeenth century Holland a tulip bulb could cost as much as a house!

These days tulips are widely grown and are fortunately much more reasonably priced and there is a staggering range of varieties early or late flowering and varying in height together with a huge spectrum of colours and colour combinations to choose from. Now is the time to get out your notebook and go and find tulip varieties you like the look of. As the choice of tulips is so wide, I would recommend that you take a photo to help identify your choice when bulbs are on sale next autumn.
Personal favourites of mine include the bi coloured varieties such as the wonderful Tulip Keizerskroon which is known as a Single Early and it is roughly a foot tall and is red and yellow.  There are many colours of Early Tulip to consider and double varieties too.

A group of early to mid-spring  flowering varieties known as theTriumph Group are a little taller than the Early Group averaging 18 inches tall and again there are a wide range of colours available.  I love the variety Tulip Garden Party as it is virtually pure white with a tiny streak of red in it.

The next group is the Darwin Group which again has many colours and averages a couple of foot in height. They are in flower later than the previous groups mentioned.  A classic red variety would be Tulip Oxford.  I am pretty sure that most varieties in this group are good for  cutting and putting in a vase for the house.

Single late varieties  are taller still, averaging more than two foot in height and a well loved variety in this category is Queen of the Night which is claret wine coloured.

Lily Flowered varieties are to me the most spectacular varieties for planting in big numbers.  They are a couple of foot in height and are urn shaped in bloom.  A great variety within this category is golden yellow in colour and is called Tulip West Point.
There is a category called Viridiflora Tulips which are roughly one and a half foot tall and have some green in the flower. The variety Artist has oranges and green in its flower.

There are species tulips and other groups of Tulip to consider if you are still struggling to find one you like.

Anemone

Another spring bulb that is less well known is the Anemone. These bulbs are low growing, flowering at the same time as some tulips. Varieties such as the Anemone blanda are pretty with their blue flowers and delicate leaves.
These plants do best in undisturbed ground in semi shade.

I hope this gives you a further insight into the wonderful world of bulbs.