How the humble tulip could be the key to elevating your garden

Independent

15-04-2025

Early spring bulbs in your garden might well be fading by now.
Yet, it is still quite some before the vibrant hues of summer plants may emerge.
Therefore, budding gardeners might be facing a potential lull in garden colour in the next few weeks.
However, according to TV gardener and BBC Gardeners' World regular Rachel de Thame, this period between seasons needn't be a barren landscape.
De Thame, who will also be appearing at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May, says there is an array of colourful options available to bridge the gap.
'Although you can get a desert in terms of flowering a bit later on in mid to late summer, the merging of late spring into early summer is seamless because a lot of the things that come into flower in late spring flower for quite a long time and some cultivars flower a bit later on,' says the plantswoman and author of A Flower Garden For Pollinators.
'You can bridge that gap between the daffodils and the roses. With a bit of clever planting you can make sure you have that lovely seamless colour. You've had crocuses, irises and blossom, but spring blossom can carry on into the latter part of May.'
Her favourite spring-to-summer plants include:
'I grow a lot of aquilegia. They started out as named cultivars and now they're quite promiscuous.
'They like to interbreed and have a party and you get all sorts of seedlings popping up. I like to see what comes through. If they are very ordinary I pull some of them out, but on the whole I love them. And you get some ruffly ones which almost look like a frilly Elizabethan collar.
'There's a pretty one called Aquilegia 'Pink Petticoat', but I also love some of the darker, sultry ones. 'William Guiness' is a real favourite. It's good for pollinators, with a more open flower shape and a lovely dark plummy purple with inner petals edged with white.'
'The foliage on aquilegias is so lacy and delicate,' she continues. 'They do very well in dappled shade in the garden.'
'There are brilliant euphorbias at that time of year. I really love that acid green colour of the bracts, while the flowers themselves are tiny. There are so many great cultivars, but Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae (also known as Mrs Robb's Bonnet) is a good stalwart.
'They are perennials, really easy and will take dry shade and are good for pollinators. The only downside is that they ooze milky sap which can be a skin irritant, so wear gloves if you are handling them.'
You can put them in the borders with alliums and late tulips. Another good plant partner for euphorbia is the ballerina tulip (Tulipa 'Ballerina'), which is orange, with a pointed flower shape, contrasting with the lime green of euphorbias, she suggests.
Geum
'I would choose Geum 'Totally Tangerine'. It's the perfect bridging plant because it comes up in late spring. I've already got lovely leaves on mine, so it's already adding something to the garden and you get those very slender stems with little orange flowers on the tips.
'The foliage is attractive but it's also well behaved, forming a ring around the base. They send up these long flowering stems high above the leaves which dance in the wind. They are great for softening a planting scheme and contrast well with purples.'
If you cut back the flowered stems when they've finished, you get another flush, and they flower on and off pretty much all the way through the summer.
Grow them in a mixed border, she suggests, as they have an informal look about them which makes them good companions for many other border plants.
Hardy geranium
'This is the perennial that has everything. They work so well with everything from other perennials to roses, used to disguise some of the barer unsightly bits at the base of a rose, and are a great weed suppressor.'
They come in a wide range of colours from white, through pale pinks, mauves, magenta and purple.
'One of my all time favourites is Geranium var. phaeum 'Samobor' which tolerates more shade. I used to grow these a lot when I was in London because they were happy getting sun for half the day and shade for the other half.
'The foliage has a maroon-coloured blotch, so even when it's not in flower the leaves look really pretty. The flowers are very small but are a really dark rich burgundy colour, on needle-like stems.'
When flowering is over, you can cut back the plant to its base and should get new fresh leaves to take you through the rest of the summer.
Tulips
Later tulips are a good bridge between spring and summer, she suggests.
'A lot of people think tulips just flower in April but a lot of late flowering cultivars go well through May, depending on the weather conditions year to year. I love 'Queen of Night', which is tall, late, with strong stems and a gorgeous rich dark chocolatey colour, contrasting well against the acid green of euphorbias.
''Carnaval de Nice' is a double, white streaked with dark maroon pink. It looks like a raspberry ripple ice-cream, but is really full of petals, a peony-type which is later flowering.'
You can plant tulips in pots (in late autumn), layering early types with later-flowering ones, giving you colour throughout spring and into May, she suggests.