Arundel Castle gardens radiate colours of spring

May 12, 2021

Last month saw the start of the annual Tulip Festival at Arundel Castle as more than 120,000 tulips in 130 varieties burst into bloom – a truly incredible sight!

Have you ever noticed that tulip flowers are symmetrical? It’s thought their name comes from the Persian word for turban, which the flower heads are thought to resemble. Tulips, the bright, show-stopping flower in spring’s colour palette, originally grew in areas stretching from Southern Europe to Central Asia. From the 17th century onwards, tulips were popular throughout western Europe. So popular in fact that tulip bulbs were traded like stocks and shares.

Purple tulips are particularly resplendent against their green stalk – and they still signify elegance and royalty. For centuries, purple dye, which could only be made from a crushed Mediterranean sea snail, was a luxury that only the seriously wealthy could afford. Purple became a signifier of status, so much so that in the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I inscribed rules governing who was permitted to wear purple into English law.

Arundel Castle’s head gardener Martin Duncan has these top tips for growing tulips:

It’s best to plant tulip bulbs in November so they do not rot in the ground.
If you’re growing tulips in pots, make sure you water them regularly, so they do not dry out.
Tulips like half shade and half sunshine, so plant them in an area when they can ideally have both.
Whether you plant your tulips in a pot or the ground, make sure you plant the bulbs 4″ deep. This helps tulips grow back year after year.

Images and text courtesy of Visit Arundel and Charlie Waring.