Sissinghurst Castle Garden<\/a> in Kent<\/a> will not have any tulip displays in 2024, following an outbreak of tulip fire around the garden this spring. Head gardener Troy Scott Smith<\/a> and his team have dug up all\u00a0infected tulip bulbs in the garden, including\u00a0some\u00a0species tulip<\/a> varieties, and are not planting any this autumn (or for several years).\u00a0<\/p> You may also like<\/p> At nearby Perch Hill, bulb supplier and gardener Sarah Raven<\/a> has also dug up thousands of infected bulbs, and will only be planting tulips in sterlised pots this year. <\/p> Sarah Raven is keen to point out that tulip fire is not a problem every year, and says that not every tulip in her garden was affected this spring. \u201cI remember that around 15 years ago, both Monty Don and I had really bad years of tulip fire as we had a pretty wet March and April. We both did the same \u2013 we both didn\u2019t plant more tulips in our borders. The tulips came up the following year and there was no tulip fire at all. And we haven\u2019t had it at Perch Hill since, until this last spring. And really quite a lot of tulips, even in our borders, didn\u2019t get it. I\u2019m really hoping this year was a blip, not a trend.\u201d She adds: “This last wet spring was unprecedented so far, but we don\u2019t know if that\u2019s an aberration or a trend.\u201d<\/p> Bayntun Flowers’ Polly Nicholson<\/a>, organic flower grower, florist, holder of the National Collection of historic tulips, told us: \u201cThis has been a tricky year for tulips, due to the incessant rain and warm temperatures throughout the month of March, at a critical time of growth. Many growers feared that their crops and stocks had been struck by the dreaded tulip virus, but much of the damage was simply weather related and not\u00a0Botrytis\u00a0tulipae. <\/em>When I harvested\u00a0the bulbs in July I inspected them very carefully for signs of damage (usually presenting as black spots under the bulb tulips) and they were nearly all lovely and clean. Any suspicious looking ones were thrown on the bonfire, rather than the compost heap.\u201d<\/p> “Commercial growers have a wide range of fungicides to control tulip fire, including some acceptable for organic regimes,” explains Guy Barter<\/a>, chief horticulturalist at the RHS.\u00a0“The incidence of the disease depends largely on the success or not of tulip producers in Holland in keeping stocks free to avoid inadvertent sale of infected tulips, which presumably depends on weather in the Netherlands.\u201d He adds: \u201cThere is no reason to forswear tulips this autumn except in areas where the disease has occurred in the previous year or two. But gardeners of a nervous disposition may wish to grow them in containers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Plantswoman and bulb expert Jacqueline de Kloet points out that tulips are demanding bulbs. “They need perfect circumstances to be able to perform well. They should be planted in November when the soil has cooled down a bit, they should be planted deep ( at least at 15 cm depth) in a well-drained, not too poor soil in a sunny spot. They need lots of sunlight and warmth. And they are greedy, so I use organic fertiliser when they start to grow, in February-March.” <\/p> \u201cTo prevent tulip fire I recommend planting the tulips a little further apart than normal, to allow air circulation and to prevent diseased parts of one tulip from touching another,” advises Polly Nicholson. Bayntun Flowers is certified with the Soil Association and so relies on organic methods and careful husbandry to prevent and limit infection. “Carefully remove any tulips that are spotted and mouldy, making sure to disinfect tools afterwards, and don\u2019t let spent petals build up on the soil.”<\/p> More on how to prevent tulip fire<\/a><\/strong><\/p> Many gardens rotate the areas where they grow tulips, so that disease does not build up in the soil. Polly Nicholson operates a four-year rotation in her cut flower field. “A bed which has been planted with tulips for cutting remains tulip-free for three years, to allow any pathogens lurking in the soil to dissipate.\u201d<\/p> \u201cAs we rotate our big display areas of tulips, we have managed to avoid any major incidents of tulip fire so far,” says Arundel Castle’s head gardener, Martin Duncan. \u201cHowever at the first sign of any tulip fire we remove the whole bulb.\u201d <\/p> Matt Pottage, curator at RHS Garden Wisley, does something similar: \u201cWe\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0worry about tulip fire in \u2018bedding tulip\u2019 situations where we occasionally bed in \u2018one hit wonders\u2019 \u2013 we then rest the ground for a couple of years afterwards. We find on the Wisley sandy soils the disease is readily active and repeat planting always becomes affected by it, especially if the ground has been wet over winter.\u201d<\/p> \u201cWe\u2019ve had really good success with growing the species varieties in grass,” says Sarah Raven. “In grass, you don\u2019t get the fungal spores spotting upwards as you do from soil. We had no tulip fire at all on various species varieties such as \u2018Little Beauty\u2019 or on the Tulipa clusiana <\/em>types.\u201d<\/p> At Wisley, 100,000 bulbs were planted for its tulip festival this spring. “We have removed all areas of bedding display, but for our huge tulip festival we simply planted them through the lawns, then mowed them off and composted them afterwards,” explains curator Matthew Pottage. “It involved very little soil disturbance and no extra input of fertiliser or water. The response from the visitors (feedback and visitor numbers) was phenomenal \u2013 people love to see \u2018massed\u2019 tulips and a sea of colour no matter what the good taste brigade stipulate.”<\/p> Grow tulips in pots<\/strong><\/p> Growing tulips in sterilised pots, in fresh compost, means you can still enjoy visual impact around the garden, even if tulip fire has been an issue. Arundel Castle, which is known for its fabulous tulip displays, usually around 400 pots of them, in fresh organic potting compost<\/a> with good drainage.<\/p> Sarah Raven is still planting tulips in sterilised pots this autumn, and is going to experiment with a homemade prophylactic organic fungicide – a mix of bicarb, liquid soap and sunflower oil in water. The fungus has already proved very effective on ranunculus in the greenhouse, which are very prone to mildew. “In some areas of the garden we\u2019re going to treat the tulips from the moment they shoot, in March, right the way to when they finish, and in other areas we\u2019re not going to treat,” she explains. “However if we happen to have a dry spring, we won\u2019t know if the bicarb has worked.\u201d<\/p>Do we need to worry about tulip fire?<\/strong><\/h2>
How to prevent tulip fire<\/h3>
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Give them the right conditions<\/h4>
Rotate your tulips<\/h4>
Grow tulips in grass<\/h4>
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