What to plant with Tulips

Add a little va-va-voom to your tulip display next year with perennials, biennials and bulbs that really bring out the best in this spring essential, says Hazel Sillver

- Hazel Sillver

ONE of our most popular garden flowers, tulips have been delighting us for centuries. But despite what the song might have you believe, they were not, originally from Amsterdam. In fact, the first shipment of tulip bulbs arrived in the Belgian port of Antwerp in 1562, having travelled by sea from Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Turkey. Europeans fell for these colourful bulbous perennials in a big way and, these days, they’re synonymous with spring.

The flowers are so lovely that it is tempting to plant them alone, en masse. But doing so can leave borders looking rather old-fashioned. Tulips are, in fact, the ultimate mixers and they’re more than happy to share the spotlight with other spring flowers. In fact, picking the right partners will give your tulip plantings a whole new lease of life.

For a contemporary look, team tulips with grasses: perennial forms such as Stipa tenuissima provide a show for the whole of the summer (and into autumn), while evergreen species give year-round interest. Try bronze-leaved Carex comans in tandem with claret Tulipa ‘Black Parrot’ and the crimson ‘Antraciet’

Euphorbias (spurge) also look fabulous with tulips and will really liven up the garden with their acid yellow tones. Grow tulips in front of the larger forms or amongst compact species such as E. oblongata and E. epithymoides. Be inspired by Beth Chatto, whose Essex garden shows how beautiful small yellow and white species tulip T. tarda looks with layers of euphorbias. For a similar effect, opt for yellow, cream and white tulip cultivars (the likes of ‘Moonlight Girl’ and ‘White Triumphator’). Or choose a scheme of bold pink, orange and red, which will ramp up the colour of your euphorbias to the max.