Tulip planting in December

Tomorrow will be a happy day. I get to go to a local bulb supplier to scavenge their leftovers, now the autumn order book has closed - yippee!

I packed bulbs for them two years ago and they think fondly of me, enough to give me raiding rights. I shall concentrate on tall tulips. Of all bulbs, tulips will put up most successfully with being planted late. I once planted some forgotten tulips at the end of January, and they were up in late April with the rest. Check out the DIY sheds for half price tulips. As long as they are not wizen and wrinkly nor blue with mould, get them in the ground or in pots ASAP.

My clay-loam is rather hard on tulips, and they tend to split into tiny bulblets, too small to flower the following year. Of course, I neglect them after flowering, and allow them to be covered up with catmint and geraniums. On the sandy soil of the Netherlands, they enjoy summer drought, and the Dutch feed and feed them before and after flowering to build up the bulbs.

The most persistant type seem to be the cottage goblet shaped red and yellow tulips. The most desirable forms and most delicate colours seem to be the ones most likely to fade into oblivion.

How clever of the Dutch to have bred such desirable plants in so many colours and forms, ensuring that we cannot resist them, and with a built in time clock to ensure that they may not survive the British soils! There is not one form which I dislike, although I give the Greigii early jobs a miss. Bring on the Cottage, Triumph, Lily, Parrot, Fringed and Peony varieties, I cannot have too many.

I may not hold myself back, I shall back the van up to the loading bay. I have half an acre of cutting field to fill, and I will put lines of tulips down my thatched dahlia beds. Thatched? Indeed. A local thatcher dumps loads of old thatch in a mountain on my field which is recycled, laid over the dahlias and tucked around the globe artichokes. After 3 months it rots like stable bedding and is perfect for mulching the vegetables and flowers.

I will also look out for Dutch iris and gladiolus species, good cutting flowers all.

Happy planting from Katherine Crouch, BBC Gardener of the Decade

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