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Plants that play nicely with tulips and how to put them together

Sarah Raven grows tulip 'Ballerina' with euphorbia at Perch Hill - Photograph Jonathan Buckley
Sarah Raven grows tulip 'Ballerina' with euphorbia at Perch Hill - Photograph Jonathan Buckley

November is tulip planting time, and a chance to be a bit more creative than just bunging them in a pot (although admittedly if this is all you can do, they will still look smashing).

Tulips look very good when varieties are successfully mixed together, but different flowering times means this can be a little hit and miss. I have often had one variety in its sturdy and perky youth while another plays out its death throes alongside it: both enjoyable stages in the tulip flower, but perhaps not in the same pot. 

More forgiving is the mixture of tulips and spring perennials, because exact timing doesn’t matter here – spring perennials go through all sorts of glorious changes, any of which will pair with tulips whenever they hit their stride. Colour blending is easier too: a lime-green euphorbia works as well as the foil to a dreamy pink and purple mix of ‘Shirley’, ‘Angelique’ and ‘Queen of Night’ as it does to the rich and vibrant oranges and reds of ‘Prinses Irene’, ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Abu Hassan’. 

Euphorbias, such as E. polychroma and E. amygdaloides var. robbiae, are obvious choices, but you might consider one-size-fits-all alchemilla, or, at the opposite end of the foliage spectrum, try moody and ferny bronze fennel. 

Dot a few flowers in between, too – dicentra, aquilegia, candytuft, wallflower – and you create a gentle ornamental meadow effect quite different to the dramatic formality of rows or stuffed pots.  All of these can be planted now, with tulips going into the ground in informal groups and swathes, planted about 6in deep.

The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2018 by Lia Leendertz (Unbound, £9.99) is out now. To buy a copy for £7.99 plus p&p, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk