Bulbs are the essential ingredient for the spring garden, providing colour and interest from winter’s end right through until early summer. Tom Stimpson, Head of Horticulture at Sarah Raven, shares his expert advice for creating a colour-filled and lengthy spring display. By Jessica Jonzen
TOM STIMPSON IN HIS CAMBRIDGESHIRE GARDEN. IMAGE: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
For Tom Stimpson, spring doesn’t begin in March or April – it begins now, in high summer. “It can feel odd, as your summer garden peaks, to think about spring. But this is when the full bulb range is available – wait, and you risk missing out.”
Stimpson’s own small town garden in Cambridgeshire – charmingly crammed with pots of all shapes and sizes – is testament to his philosophy of planning ahead. From early February through to May, it is an ever-changing spectacle of colour and form thanks to the array of bulbs he planted the previous autumn. “Planning bulb displays, and the physical act of planting them, is something I look forward to every year,” he says, describing the ritual with genuine enthusiasm. “It’s about the promise of how fabulous it will all look the following spring.”
Showcasing everything from crocus and iris reticulata to narcissi and tulips, chosen carefully to ensure a succession of colour and interest, Tom’s garden is both a testbed for work and a showcase of his personal favourites and creative expression. He tells us more.
The art of planning ahead
(LEFT) NARCISSUS ‘POLAR HUNTER’, (RIGHT) IRIS RETICULATA ‘BLUE NOTE’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
Working alongside Sarah Raven, I’m constantly looking at new planting combinations, and potentially new varieties of bulbs. Last autumn I chose quite muted, dusky tones of mauves, purples and pinks which worked really well. Just outside of my garden I have a walkway with a border in which I have three huge pots which I planted with tulips in creamy whites, mauves, oranges and pinks. We’re always looking to evolve our look, and I felt these colours were quite in vogue and as that area is quite shady, these colours looked quite luminous. It’s amazing what a difference colour can make to a space.
I think of bulbs as a four-month display: from the earliest crocus and iris in February through to the last tulips in May. It’s incredibly easy to have a garden full of pots in flower from winter’s end through to the beginnings of summer – just plan accordingly.
My season begins with crocus and iris reticulata in small pots and bowls to display on tables and steps – the mix of heights creates added interest in small gardens like mine. I love combining Crocus crysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’ and deep purple varieties with Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’ – a rich indigo blue that’s perfect for winter displays.
Next comes muscari, a favourite is Muscari ‘Blue Magic’ packed into shallow terracotta dishes and massed together, followed by scented narcissi. My favourites include ‘Minnow’, ‘Avalanche’, ‘Pipit’, ‘Moonlight Sensation’ and ‘Sailboat’. The new ‘Polar Hunter’, which flowered for five weeks in my garden last year, is a must-have. Another is Narcissus ‘Snipe’ – beautiful and hard to get hold of, but I’m delighted Sarah Raven is offering it this year. It has a long trumpet and petals that reflex back on themselves – really pretty with a wonderful light scent.
All about tulips
(LEFT) TULIP ‘BALLERINA’, (RIGHT) TULIP ‘BLUE HEAVEN’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
Then, from April to May, it’s all about tulips. I believe tulips are best grown in large pots — I call them ‘whopper’ pots: 40 to 50cm high and 50 to 60cm across and as a rule of thumb, you want about an equal number of bulbs. I sometimes think there’s a bit of a misconception that if you have a small garden, you need small pots when actually the opposite is true. I still love small terracotta and zinc pots for table tops but for tulips, the bigger the pot the better.
I never plant tulips before November as they can be a bit susceptible to fungal diseases, and the colder it is when you plant, the less chance there is of any form of fungal attack. I generally plant them in two layers in a ‘lasagne’ of early, mid and late varieties to extend the display. Planting them deep helps to create a stronger stem and prevents them from flopping when in flower.
Among my favourite early species tulips is ‘Sylvestris’ (bright yellow and scented like freesia) and I grow it so I can cut it and have it on my bedside table – it makes the whole bedroom smell beautiful. I love combining it with ‘Turkestanica’ which has pointed white and faintly pink petals with a yolk-yellow centre which is great for naturalising. And I always have tulip ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Request’ – both of which are delightful orange varieties, and wonderfully scented.
This year’s tulip highlights for me include ‘Blue Heaven’, a most unusual multi-headed tulip that opens mauve, turns blue, and fades to grey-pink. It’s a brilliant performer and great for cutting. It’s just the right height and goes with lots of colours – from primary colours to creams and pale tones. ‘Dom Pedro’ is another one I’m excited about. It’s a deep purple-brown old variety which is very hard to get hold of and is now being grown for us exclusively. It pairs well with crimsons, oranges and rich purples – it’s a real star find which blooms from mid-April through to mid-May.
Planting practicalities
(LEFT) MUSCARI ‘BLUE MAGIC’, (RIGHT) NARCISSUS ‘AVALANCHE’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
We don’t start sending bulbs out until mid-September so you won’t have to store them for too long. Once they arrive, keep them somewhere cool, dark and airy – a garage is ideal – and plant at the right time: smaller bulbs from mid-September; tulips from November onwards to avoid disease.
When planting time comes, my planting mix is made up of a third of the old summer compost, a third manure, and a third peat-free compost, enriched with grit for drainage. Drainage is crucial. If pots sit on gravel, all is well as the water can drain freely away. If they sit on paving, I put them on feet. And once planted, just one good watering in – you don’t need to water again until they start into growth. When stems begin to form, I start to apply a liquid seaweed feed once a week.
Once the crocus, iris reticulata and muscari have finished flowering and are still in leaf, I’ll remove the dead flowers, moisten the compost and extract them from their pots, separating the bulbs or keeping them in little clumps and I’ll plant these out into my borders – just as you would plant out snowdrops in the green. Leave them to do their thing and they’ll come back the following spring. I don’t have lots of space in my borders so I’ll also offer them up to friends and family too.
With narcissi in pots, you have to wait until the foliage has died down and gone brown. Lift and separate them out, brush the soil off and dry them out in a cool, dark, well-ventilated space. Once they’ve dried put them in a paper or mesh bag and plant them out again in the autumn, when the whole cycle begins again.
For me, bulbs are about optimism as much as aesthetics. They bring joy at the start of the year, when we most need it. There’s something magical about watching them emerge after months of cold and grey. And who wouldn’t enjoy planning ahead for that?
(LEFT) NARCISSUS ‘MOONLIGHT SENSATION’, (RIGHT) TULIP ‘DOM PEDRO’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
(LEFT) TULIP ‘REQUEST’, (RIGHT) NARCISSUS ‘SAILBOAT’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
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