How to Grow: Tulips

The tulip is one of the most popular spring-time flowers both here in the UK and abroad in overseas lands. A bulbous plant, tulips are perennial and come from the genus Tulipa, which is made up of approximately 109 species.


While Tulips are most frequenlty associated with the Dutch, commercial cultivation of the flower began in the Ottoman Empire. Known for their waxy-textured leaves, tulips thrive in countries with long cool spring seasons and early summers and, if grown right, can reach heights of 70cm tall. Here are our gardening tips on how to grow tulips in your garden this year.

1. Timing is key to getting the best tulips in your garden. Ideally, you want to be planting bulbs at the end of the year – say late November / early December – but even now at the end of January, you can still get bulbs in the ground ready for late spring. Differnet varieties bloom at different times, so we recommend staggering the planting process so that each variety springs up at (roughly) the same time.

2. If, like us, you like to hoard bulbs, we highly recommend you plant them before they reach three years old. This will give the best results when they start flowering in the spring. We also suggest you fertilise your flowerbeds before commencing work. If you are digging a new bed for first-time planting, find a sunny area in your garden, dig down to a depth of around 30 cm and make sure you work the ground well.

3. When it comes to putting bulbs in the ground, we suggest you plant them around 3-5 cm deep, with the root portion pointing into the ground. Each tulip should have roughly 12 cm’ free space around it, allowing for good root growth.

4. If you live in a cold climate, cover the bulbs with mulch. This will help the tulips develop better, and will keep ground frosts at bay until the warmer weather comes later in the season. It’s very important that you remove the mulch when the weather warms up so the flowers can grow.

5. When your tulips start flowering, you can cut them for indoor use, or leave them to enjoy the company of the rest of your garden. If you do decide to cut them, make sure you leave the green stems alone as they will continue to feed the bulb ready for another year. When the remaining foliage dies, cut it away and leave the bulb to mature for another year – either in the ground – or in your potting shed.

For more details of how to look after bulbs, take a look at our head gardener’s video blog.

Picture courtesy of Mo Westein, via flickr.