Tulips - part 1

Tulips - Part 1

In this lesson, I use Francoise, Raspberry Ripple, Apricot Pride, Spring Green, Flaming Club and Belle Epoque tulips, all sourced from the Land Gardeners.

I would really recommend buying locally grown tulips. Go for it and abandon the rules when putting tulips together. I recommend buying galvanised chicken wire, which acts as a structure helping to position the tulips. As a general rule, the bigger the arrangement the wider the pot tape you want.

In my experience tulips are the most thirsty of all the cut flowers. Keep topping up your water levels and checking them. Think carefully about where the arrangement is going to go.

I start with the biggest and strongest tulips and create a structure. It's important to condition your flowers beforehand and lay them out in families. Play about and have loads of different heights when arranging. This makes an arrangement look very wild and natural.

For smaller events, I buy locally, but for larger events I buy from Holland. Colour-wise you want your main flower to be an odd number so one, three, five, seven. You always want to think about covering the neck of a vase, so you don't want to see it.

I recommend erring on the side of caution and cutting the tulips longer. When making arrangements on colour, it's good to choose tonal variations to avoid it looking flat. Use negative space, don't feel like you need to fill every hole with a flower.