The shimmering ‘Wedding Cake’ of tulips at Arundel Castle
Image: Annelise Brilli

In the middle of this scorching summer, it’s easy to forget the dark days of late winter, the desperate wait for spring colour and the immense joy when tulips emerge, studding bare borders like jewels. Gardening is all about planning ahead, and although spring seems very far away, you need to start thinking about which spring bulbs you’d like to grow now.  

Months of careful planning at Arundel Castle in West Sussex creates one of the largest spring bulb displays in the UK – an explosion of over 120,000 tulips and more than 150 varieties, all carefully orchestrated to create a stunning succession of colour throughout April. The festival showcases the versatility of tulips and other spring bulbs, with plantings in turf, borders and pots. I’ve been rifling through my photos of last April’s event, gleaning inspiration for my tulip orders this month.

Naturalised tulips

Entering the grounds through a portico, you are immediately met with swathes of naturalised bulbs sweeping between blossoming cherries. Flowering bulbs clothe the dry castle moat, creating a stunning contrast between the austere grey castle walls and their jewelled banks.

The display includes thousands of white Narcissus ‘Thalia’,  blue Camassia and even naturalised tulips. Tulips from previous years are recycled by transplanting them into the grass once they are past their best. Although hybrid tulips don’t naturalise as well as species tulips, flowering for about three years before fading, they make a rewarding display. Many of the naturalised tulips are Darwin hybrids. These are especially large-flowered, tall tulips which are renowned for being the most robust and long-lived of hybrid tulips.

Darwin tulips are naturalised in grass
Image: Annelise Brilli

The landscape is punctuated with specimen trees, and at this point I was distracted by two stunning examples of Paulownia tomentosa in full bloom. This broadly spreading tree is a spring sensation, with upright panicles of soft purple, foxglove-like flowers appearing before the handsome, heart-shaped leaves emerge.

Paulownia tomentosa
Image: Annelise Brilli

The foxglove-like flowers of Paulownia tomentosa appear on bare branches before the leaves
Image: Annelise Brilli

Tulips in pots

Pots abound – in fact, there are over 500 of them – and it’s a stunning demonstration of the advantages of displaying spring bulbs in containers. Most of the pots are terracotta-coloured plastic, making them lightweight, portable and requiring less frequent watering. They’re easily shifted about to refresh earlier spent blooms, enliven bare or shady spots with colour and artfully placed to highlight and frame architectural features. The pots are rammed – remember that in containers you can get away with much denser planting, leaving only a few centimetres between each bulb – creating concentrated blocks of colour which are high impact.

There are over 500 pots of tulips providing plenty of inspiration for the home gardener
Image: Annelise Brilli

Designing with tulips

The crescendo of colour reaches its climax in The Collector’s Garden. What was once an abandoned kitchen garden and car park was transformed in 2008 into a Jacobean fantastical extravaganza. The area is divided into a series of rooms each with its own theatrical set piece carved out of green oak including a giant classical gateway, a temple crowned with antlers. shell-studded grottos and gilded fountains.

The tulip displays are carefully designed to vary in tone and intensity, enhancing the character of each garden room. Tulips offer an enormous range of colours to suit all tastes – from shimmering pastels to luxurious purples and maroons – and an unrivalled opportunity to indulge yourself with colour and paint the garden with flowers. Here’s a taste of some of Arundel’s tulip colours and suggestions of how to recreate the look at home.

Jewel tones

Image: Annelise Brilli

‘Bow Tie Bed’ with massed plantings of tulips
Image: Annelise Brilli

A sumptuous colour scheme of red, purple and maroon-black was used to great effect in the organic kitchen garden, where it was planted into the ‘Bow-Tie Beds’ of neatly trimmed box.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Queen of Night’
• Tulip ‘Red Impression’
• Tulip ‘Purple Flag’

A snowy carpet with pops of red

Tulips and daffodils in the ‘Labyrinth Garden’
Image: Annelise Brilli

The massed planting shimmers in the sunlight
Image: Annelise Brilli

In the stunning Labyrinth Garden, a large lawn is planted up with concentric swirls of more than 20,000 red Darwin tulips in a sea of pure white, scented  Narcissus ‘Thalia’, all surrounded by exotic windmill palms Trachycarpus fortunei.

Get the look

• Narcissus ‘Thalia’
• Tulip ‘Red Impression’

Shocking Pink

Image: Annelise Brilli

Image: Annelise Brilli

Pots of large-headed, shocking pink tulips really made a splash beside the pool and cascade.

Get the look

•  Tulip ‘Pink Giant’

Fruity shades of pink and yellow

Image: Annelise Brilli

They often tell you not to mix pink and yellow, but this fruity cocktail defies the rule with elegance.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Golden Apeldoorn’
• Tulip ‘Avignon’

Fire & ice

Image: Annelise Brilli

These fiery tulips were tastefully toned down with dashes of cream.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Red Impression’
• Tulip ‘Golden Apeldoorn’
• Tulip ‘Flaming Parrot’
• Tulip ‘Cream Cocktail’

Orange glow

Image: Annelise Brilli

Pots of these layered, peony-flowered tulips were strategically placed to radiate a glow of warming tangerine in shadier corners of the garden.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Big Giant’

Lilac and lime

Image: Annelise Brilli

These pale purple tulips pair beautifully with the zingy lime green of the euphorbia, the display given a lift by the addition of orange crown imperial fritillaries.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Blue Diamond’
• Fritillaria ‘Imperialis’
• Euphorbia martini ‘Baby Charm’

A passion for purple

Image: Annelise Brilli

This harmonising blend of purples created a relaxed ambience, framing some seating.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Double Flag’
• Tulip ‘Blueberry Ripple’
• Tulip ‘Shirley’

Sweetening up the veg patch

Image: Annelise Brilli

Tulips are a great way to inject some early colour into your veg plot whilst you are waiting for crops to bulk up. These tulips added a sugary sweet flavour interplanted amongst beets in the organic kitchen garden.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Brown Sugar’
• Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’

Pretty pastels

Image: Annelise Brilli

These grouped containers were a perfectly toned display of pastel creams and pinks balanced with deeper purple.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Angelique’
• Tulip ‘Barcelona’
• Tulip ‘World Friendship’
• Tulip ‘Purple Flag’
• Tulip ‘Carre’
• Myosotis sylvatica ‘Blue Ball’

Sunset hues

Image: Annelise Brilli

Garden plants which offer sunset colours are precious as there are few examples. Hybrid tulips offer some lovely choices – be sure to seek them out.

Get the look

• Tulip ‘Apricot Beauty’
• Tulip ‘Queensday’
• Tulip ‘Exotic Orange’
• Tulip ‘Tangerine Dream’

Inspired by Arundel’s magnificent display, I’m busy compiling my spring bulb order.  Daffodils should be planted by the end of September, whilst tulips go in later from the end of October onwards – but be sure to order early in order to obtain the very best selections and have fun inventing your own creative colour combinations!