Planting tulips for seasonal colour

Planning ahead for glorious spring colour in your garden feels especially worthwhile as winter approaches and the days grow darker and shorter. And if you thought it was too late to plant bulbs

These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

, think again.

Tulips grow well when planted between September and December. The key is to plant as soon as you can after buying or receiving by mail order so the bulbs don’t deteriorate before they go in the ground.

Tulips are ideal for both pots and borders – you can use them as seasonal bedding plants

Bedding plants are usually colourful half-hardy, short-lived or annual plants, grown for displays in beds or containers. They may be changed seasonally, with spring, summer and winter bedding displays each using different plants of appropriate hardiness and flowering times.

, but there are also varieties suitable for permanent planting, or even naturalising in wilder spots in the garden.

There is a wide range of flower colour to choose from; including white-cream, yellow-orange, blue-purple, red-pink, even greens and dark black-purple. Flower shape adds to this diversity, with single-, double-, lily-flowered, viridiflora, fringed and parrot forms. Different tulip cultivars flower from early to late spring, so careful planning can give a succession of colour for months on end.

Versatile and useful

Mix up flower shapes and colours for vibrant displays full of visual interest. (Tulipa ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Queen of Night’)

Bulbs can be planted for spring colour in borders between perennial

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

plants (which continue the seasonal display by flowering later in the year), and in containers to brighten up paved areas and act as vibrant focal points.

Alternatively, use tulips with other spring-flowering plants in a bedding scheme. For impact use lower-growing plants that flower at a similar time to tulips including forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica), wallflowers (Erysimum cheiri), primoses, polyanthus and pansies (Viola).

Space bulbs at least twice their width apart, and plant them at a depth of two to three times their height. The pointed end of the bulb should be uppermost.

Tulips make wonderful cut flowers

Video: How to plant bulbs in a pot

More advice on growing and choosing tulips

Discover tulips; varieties and more

Video: Planting tulips in a border

Buy tulip books from RHS Shop