Tulips have always had a special place in our hearts – elegant, expressive and endlessly surprising. We plant ours in November, tucking them into the soil just as the garden is beginning to sleep. One key thing to know is that, unlike narcissi, tulips don’t always return year after year in the same way. Many behave more like annuals, meaning you’ll often need to replant – and that can become an expensive habit!
This year, we’ve been focusing more on varieties that can naturalise, closer to their wild forms, while still indulging our obsession with a few showstoppers we simply can’t resist. Here are our top three favourites right now
Delicate and wild at heart, these little beauties are a dream for florists. Tiny, graceful and brimming with charm, they work perfectly for bridal work, bud vases and buttonholes. Peppermint Stick, with its striking candy stripes, and Stellata, with its elegant starry form, are the tulips that made us fall truly, madly, deeply in love all over again.
An heirloom treasure – and a bold one at that. Aximensis glows in a rich red that feels both timeless and fresh. We don’t use red too often in our arrangements, but when we do, we want it to make a statement. This tulip is just the right size for buttonholes, adding a surprising splash of colour where it’s least expected.
Our current obsession. Belle Époque is everything we adore in a tulip: hybrid, yes, but with proper care it’s said to be more reliable than most (lets see, we will keep you posted). Its colour is extraordinary – shades that shift and deepen and fade as it moves through its lifecycle, all with the lush, peony-like form that makes us swoon. We can never get enough of it as it sells out so quickly everywhere so we’ve decided to grow our own!