How to encourage tulips to flower every spring
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How to naturalise tulips
PHOTO: GETTY/JACKY PARKER PHOTOGRAPHY
When planting tulips for a long-lasting display, choose a location where the soil drains well. Avoid damp corners with little air movement. They like an open site and full sun. The only exception is the lateflowering Tulipa sprengeri, which prefers growing in partial shade.
GardenersWorld.com/grow-tulipsfor more advice on planting and growing tulips
One of the joys of tulips that repeat-flower is having them naturalise in your garden, spreading slowly by underground stems or seeds. They’ll create an intoxicating show to look forward to every year, alongside spring perennials and annuals. Being dormant in summer, tulips are drought tolerant and ideal for naturalising in a gravel garden. Some will thrive in a lawn or wildflower meadow, but not all are strong or persistent enough to keep flowering when competing with grass.
As the dark days of winter approach, it’s exciting to look forward to colourful spring bulbs and browse catalogues and websites for ideas of what to grow. Tulips are among the biggest and brightest of spring flowers and now is the time to plant them. They look great in borders and containers, filling our gardens with colour, but they can have a downside – many can fail to produce the same quality of display the following year.