How to grow tulips and best varieties

Tulips are one of the most glamorous plants in the spring garden. They grow well in both pots and borders, and the bulbs should be planted in autumn.

Which? Gardening magazine grew a range of popular varieties to see which would give us the best display.

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Key facts

Plant type Spring-flowering bulbs

Position Full sun or partial shade

Soil Well-drained soil

How to grow tulips: month by month

Best tulip varieties

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Full testing results for tulips

Tulips for pots

USING THE TABLE The more stars the better. Flowering duration Based on the number of weeks the flowers were at their peak. Weather resistance Based on how much the plants were affected by high winds, heavy rain or high temperatures. SCORE Ignores price and is based on: longevity 30%, impact 20%, garden worthiness (a subjective assessment of the variety’s overall qualities) 20%, suitability 15%, weather 10%, pest and disease resistance 5%.

How we test tulips

We planted the bulbs in our trial grounds in November. As they came into flower in the spring, we kept records of how long they were in flower, noting whether all the plants of the same variety flowered at a similar time and height. We kept an eye out for any problems caused by pests, diseases or the weather. For the tulips for pots, we also assessed the plants’ suitability for pots, looking especially at the length and thickness of their stems.

Double tulips - annual or perennial?

It’s tempting to leave tulips in the ground or their pots in the hope that they will grow and flower again the following year. And while this can be true of some tulips, we found it wasn’t the case with most of these showy double varieties. The display was less impressive for all those we grew in the set of bulbs left in the ground to reflower. Only a handful of varieties – ‘Aveyron’, ‘Blue Diamond’, ‘Crème Upstar’, ‘Hermitage Double’, ‘Margarita’ and ‘Sun Lover’ – came back with a decent number of blooms, so it’s probably best to think of double tulips as annuals and plant fresh bulbs each autumn.

Our verdict: Double tulips are best treated as annuals; buy fresh bulbs each autumn.

Planting

Plant tulip bulbs in a sunny sheltered spot, at three times their own depth, spacing them 10-20cm apart. 

Wait until November to plant them to avoid the fungal disease tulip fire. 

If growing in pots, add a controlled-release fertiliser to the compost and plant bulbs in layers to boost the display.

Caring for your plants

How to get tulips to reflower

Tulips are a spring favourite, but have a reputation for being unreliable when it comes to getting them to flower more than once. Some seem to return each year, but others simply disappear, leaving you with gaps in your display. It can happen even if you plant them in pots, with flowering becoming  weaker each year or stopping completely. It’s expensive to buy fresh bulbs every year, so we wanted to know if there are any planting strategies we could adopt to get them to reflower reliably.

For most tulips, planting the bulbs deeply (around 15cm deep) and leaving them in the ground gives the best results. 

But if you can’t avoid lifting them, then don’t bother planting them too deeply– they will be just as happy shallow planted and then replanted the following autumn. 

Parrot tulips don’t like being left in the ground at all, and shallow planting and lifting this type of tulip seems to produce the best blooms in subsequent years. 

For pots, we would recommend lifting them and replanting for the following year, or buy fresh bulbs each autumn. 

We didn’t feed our tulips as few amateur gardeners do, but applying a foliar feed at the end of flowering and removing all the dead heads may encourage flowering for the second year.

Common growing problems

Tulip fire

Tulips can suffer from tulip fire, a fungal disease that causes brown, scorched-looking leaves. Planting after November should avoid it. It often occurs where tulips are grown in the same place for more than two years in a row, so try to plant in a different part of the garden.

Read more about tulip fire

Slugs and snails

Slugs and snails can nibble the young leaves. Pick off any you find and use ferric-phosphate slug pellets. Squirrels often dig up bulbs, so you may need to cover them with chicken wire until the first shoots emerge.

Read more about slugs and snails