In the heat of an auction situation things can get out of hand and we can end up paying more than intended, but can you imagine paying thousands of pounds for a single tulip bulb? Utter madness – to the point of mania. Tulipomania as this seventeenth century craze came to be called.
The mad rush for tulips began in France, yet it was the Dutch who became known for the obsession – the Netherlands was the wealthiest country in Europe at the time, thanks in no small part to the success of the Dutch East India Company. Rich merchants had money to spend and as these rare bulbs began to arrive from the East, the newly rich bought them as status symbols.
The tulip flowers they were paying such exorbitant prices for were exquisitely beautiful – just look at those wonderful still life paintings by the Dutch masters. Most of that fabulousness, however, was caused by a virus – Tulip Break Virus, or TBV, which creates stripes and feathering in the petals. The most coveted of all was the famous ‘King of Tulips’ – Semper Augustus. You could say it was white with red streaks, but ‘as if deep crimson flames were licking up its creamy white petals’ might have been a more romantic description for an auction house catalogue, where just one bulb would eventually sell for the price of a smart canal-side town house.
It all started innocently enough among obsessed collectors, but it wasn’t long before dealers and speculators moved in and formed a market. They even began dealing in tulip futures, where promises on paper traded for vast sums without even sight of a bulb let alone a flower.
As quickly as the feverish market in tulip bulbs boomed, so it crashed, with prices tumbling overnight as people either came to their senses, or (and this may be more likely) the bulb just went out of fashion. Sadly the much coveted Semper Augustus and another equally desirous ‘broken’ tulip called Viceroy (called broken due to the breaks in colour) are no longer in cultivation, both beautifully cursed with TBV. It wasn’t discovered until 1928 that the very thing that was creating the fabulous feathering and flame-like streaks was also weakening the plants until they eventually withered and would no longer flower. These days commercial growers tend to avoid broken tulips and it is actually illegal in the Netherlands to plant them.

In order to stand a chance of flowering in following years, the foliage needs to be left on once the flowers have finished (try to dead-head too – making seeds takes up vital energy)

Modern Day Tulips

Our passion for tulips lives on and thankfully the glamorous frilled and striped ones are affordable – the striations found nowadays are stable attributes and not caused by TBV. If you have fallen in love with the Rembrandt-style Tulips, there are modern varieties that look just as sumptuous and suitable as cut flowers and still life subjects. ‘Prinses Irene’ is one of the most well known, with a yellow base and red ‘flames’. ‘Grand Perfection’ is a single late variety said to look like Semper Augustus, or try ‘Estella Rynveld’ for a mad, parroty version. Fringed, striped and parrot tulips, although more stable, do tend to be less reliable than some of the other varieties, so are probably best treated as annuals.

Growing Success

Tulips in general are prone to quite a few viruses – and a nasty fungal infection called ‘Tulip Fire’. The reason we are encouraged to plant our tulips in November, or even later – basically once the soil has cooled – means that infection is less likely, because many of the diseases have slowed or died off.
The bulbs’ proneness to infection is partly why they tend to be short-lived in our borders, but there are other reasons. Tulips are originally from mountainous regions of Iran and Turkey, emerging to flower in the brief spring season once the snow melts, then retreating back into dormancy underground in order to survive the harsh summer weather. Bulbs are nature’s way of coping with difficult conditions – with some it is the dry shade of the woodland, but for others, like tulips, it is an arid climate. Tulips will manage the cold of our winters, but without adequate drainage will not always manage in our wet weather. The strongest, longest lasting varieties are species tulips, but also the Darwin and Triumph series. There is a tall red Darwin hybrid called ‘Appledorn’, which keeps cheerfully popping up for many years undaunted.
The other problem with tulips is that they are tasty. Not that delicious to us (although during the Dutch famine in World War Two, they were boiled and eaten). Squirrels, mice, rats, voles – and I found out last winter – badgers, will sniff them out and dig them up, so plant them deeply in the borders, or, if grown in pots, try covering with wide gauged wire netting.

Planting Partners

Grown as bedding en masse or in containers, tulips are spectacular, but they’re just as lovely included in mixed cottage style borders. They flower in the spring and so are perfectly matched with biennials like honesty, forget-me-nots and wallflowers. Tulips have quite big leaves and so can shade out dainty and vulnerable plants, but equally these leaves can look quite tatty, so it’s good to have a frothy skirt of biennials. Aquilegias and early geraniums are a good perennial alternative. Contrasts in texture work well too, so sugary wands of Tiarella, young leaves of bronze fennel, or delicate dicentra. In order to stand a chance of flowering in following years, the foliage needs to be left on once the flowers have finished (try to dead-head too – making seeds takes up vital energy). The tatty fading foliage is then hidden by the other plants.

Best for Naturalising

Grass is a strong competitor, so the best tulips for naturalising tend to be the tough little species varieties. These flower early, at the same time as many of the narcissi. They prefer a free-draining sunny situation though, so the natural site for daffodils – under trees and by hedges – may not suit them long term. Sunny gravel gardens and meadow situations, where the grass is shorter and without too much competition, will suit them and they should begin to bulk up and set seed, spreading slowly into clumps. Tulipa clusiana, sprengii, and turkestanica are among the best varieties for naturalising.

Pots of colour

Containers will bring a welcome splash of colour near the house, or in borders where not much is yet in flower. The season for tulips is long – there are early, mid and late varieties, so you can pack your pots with colour from early March until the end of May. If you choose varieties carefully, you could always try lasagne planting – this is several layers of bulbs, each layer with a variety flowering at a different time. Having tried this on several occasions, I find it’s better not to have tulips in each layer, but a selection of other bulbs too. The reason for this is that by the time the later varieties come up, there’s too much leaf in the container and it becomes difficult to give them enough room, or to see the flowers.
The great thing about growing tulips in pots is that you can move them out of the way while they die down and it will actually do them good to dry out through the summer, as this mimics the situation in the parched mountainsides they evolved to cope with. Better still, if you plant them in a plastic pot in the beginning, this can just slot into a nicer pot while it’s looking good, then just lift the plastic pot out and the good one is free for you to put summer plants into.

Tulips are irresistible – there are so many fantastic cultivars to choose from – in such myriad styles and colours that it can be confusing knowing what to choose. In general, if you want them to be reliable, the closer you are to the species, the more likely it is that they will be perennial, but they are not that expensive any more (definitely not by seventeenth century standards!) And a splurge every now and then will bring you joy, even if it only lasts a few weeks.

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