Plant tulips this month by the bucketful to bring one of the year's most breathtaking spectacles to your back yard. Tulip bulbs are planted later, to avoid the disfiguring disease tulip fire – but from this month onwards it's all systems go.
You'll find a superb range of varieties on sale in our garden centre, in all colours from yellow-edged mahogany red 'Abu Hassan' to pure white 'Purissima', pretty peach-coloured 'Ballerina' and sunny yellow 'West Point'. Planting them is straightforward, as long as you follow our top tulip-planting tips:
1: Create a natural look instead of regimented lines by scattering the bulbs randomly over the ground first, and planting them where they fall.
2: Plant deep, at least 15cm and up to 25cm below ground. Deep-planted tulips are more likely to come back next year, and need less staking.
3: Give them extra grit especially if you garden in clay. Tulip bulbs are prone to rotting in heavy wet soils, so add 5cm of grit or sand in the bottom of the hole.
4: Plant pointy-end up sitting the flat end (where the roots are produced) snugly on the bed of gravel.
5: Space your bulbs well – about 8cm apart gives them plenty of space to grow.
