One of the ways you can approach designing your spring garden is to plan your fall bulb planting with the idea of "waves of blooms."

It's satisfying to plan your garden around colors and heights of blooms. You can also group your early-mid spring bloomers with lates to get even more out of your tulip garden. Because any tulip bulbs you put in the ground together make for an impactful spring garden, you can't go wrong when selecting your favorites for a custom mix, or you can use these suggestions below.

Extended Bloom Groups

Below are tulips that when planted together—or very close to one another—make for a longer time span of vibrant colors. Some groupings even fall into similar color families making planning the "choreography" of your garden a fun exercise, and an even more pleasurable "recital" when springtime comes!

One example of an excellent time-extending group includes: Lanka, Pretty Princess, Purple Lady, and Queen of the Night. These four tulips bloom mid spring to late spring and all fall into a "friendly" pink/purple color family that pair nicely with other types of flowers you may be planting.

 

Another lovely blooming mix includes Lalibela, our new tulip Gavota,  Apricot Parrot and Lambada, which happens to be the fringed cousin of our most photographed tulip last year, the Blushing Lady. This group starts with the bright red Lalibela in early spring and moves into more subtle golden hues as the season progresses.

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You can usually find blooming information when you buy plants and bulbs, and we always list each tulip's bloom time in our bulb shop.

We've found that nature puts all kinds of colors together that always look beautiful, and that what is most important when selecting bulbs is to choose what makes YOU happy.  These 'gardens of delight' are always deeply enjoyed. So many of you have told us that when you plant tulips like this, that you look like an amazing gardener!  The Tulipman Surprise Mix is a favorite for this reason, and you'll get to enjoy an impactful, vibrant mix of colors, styles and heights throughout the entire spring.

We wish you happy and creative (or even completely casual) fall planting. The wonderful thing about tulips are that, even with very little thought, you'll be delighted by the brilliant signs of spring that pop up exactly when you are ready for them!

-Keriann & Jeroen