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Fall is my favorite time to plant. The soil is warm, the air is cooler, and I am traveling less. Each fall I add new spring-flowering bulbs to my garden. This year double tulips are at the top of the list. Consider doing the same and help celebrate the National Garden Bureau’s Year of the Tulip.
Double tulips look completely different from regular tulips. Instead of upright, egg-shaped blossoms, their flowers look more like roses or peonies, with layers of silky petals. I love how they look in the garden, and they are also beautiful cut flowers. In fact, their growing popularity with floral designers is making them easier to find in flower shops.
You can both start and end the spring bulb season with double tulips. The early-blooming varieties open at the same time as daffodils, while the late ones finish up right before the peonies open. Double tulips change day by day as the flowers mature. They begin as romantic, softly cupped blossoms and go out as flashy extroverts. Watching this transformation is part of the fun of growing them. As an added surprise, you’ll find that most double tulips are also fragrant, especially the late-blooming varieties.
Double tulips can be planted in small informal clusters of seven or more bulbs scattered throughout your perennial gardens. Or combine them with other types of tulips that have similar bloom times. If you love making bouquets for your home or to share with friends, be sure to plant plenty of bulbs. Double tulips last a long time in a vase and look lovely combined with flowering branches, spring perennials, and other spring bulbs.

Start the Tulip Season with a Burst of Color

Tulip Margarita - Double Tulip - Longfield Gardens - National Garden Bureau Year of the Tulip
Say goodbye to colder weather and welcome the growing season in a big way with the early-blooming double tulip Margarita. Plant this variety with grape hyacinths to create multiple layers of color and fragrance. These violet-purple tulips are the perfect size and height for perennial gardens. For color partners, choose tulips and hyacinths that bloom in pastel pink or go bright with crown imperial fritillaria and yellow daffodils.

Tulip Foxy Foxtrot - Double Tulip - Longfield Gardens - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip
Warm up your early spring garden with the honey-gold, apricot and peach petals of Foxy Foxtrot. This tulip, like other doubles, makes a great cut flower. Extend your floral display by adding citrusy Monte Orange double tulips and Téte a Téte daffodils. Téte a Téte grows just 10” tall and its golden yellow petals accentuates the sunny side of the two tulips.

Tulip Double Flag - Double Tulip - Longfield Gardens - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip

The tulip Double Flag has become a favorite in the European cut flower markets. Its intense, violet-grape color is hard to resist and the perfect complement for yellow daffodils. As a cut flower, Double Flag will continue to grow in the vase. Over the course of a week, you can expect all tulips to add as much as extra three inches to their original length.

Tulip Monsella - Double Tulip - Longfield Garden - National Garden Bureau

The flashy flowers of Monsella will certainly turn heads and may stop traffic. This double tulip’s petals are canary yellow with bright red flames. On sunny days the flowers become even showier as the petals open out wide to absorb the warmth.

Add Triumph Tulips for Midseason Color

As the early double tulips fade, you can rely on Triumph tulips to continue the colorful cavalcade. These midseason bloomers will happily link the bloom times of early and late double tulips.
Triumph tulips have the more traditional tulip shape and are loved for their vivid colors. Have fun mixing and matching them to create your own unique color statement. And remember to be generous when planting. Tulips always look best in large groups and it’s fun to have plenty of extras stems to cut and share.

Plant a Grand Finale of Colorful Double Tulips

Tulip Parade of Pinks - Double Tulips - Longfield Gardens - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip
End the spring season with a lush display of color coordinated double tulips. The Parade of Pink collection is a mix of fragrant doubles that includes white, pink, peach and purple.

Tulip La Belle Epoch - Double Tulip - Longfield Garden - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip
Be the first of your gardening friends to grow the unique double tulip named La Belle Èpoque. Its petals are a swirl of antique rose, peach, butterscotch, and cream, reflecting the popular fashion colors of the La Belle Èpoque period in France.

Double Tulip - Charming Beauty - Longfield Gardens - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip
Add some romance to your garden with Charming Beauty. These peachy apricot doubles look fabulous with purple tulips and deep pink hyacinths. Or plant them among purple-leafed coral bells and dark-leaved ajuga.
Double Tulip Creme Upstar - Longfield Garden - National Garden Bureau - Year of the Tulip
Top off your late spring tulip display with the multifaceted Crème Upstar. This fragrant double is a blend of pastel cream and pale yellow with touches of apricot, pink and rose. The colors intensify as the flowers mature, creating a subtle transformation that is fun to watch in the garden or in a vase.

To learn more about the different types tulips and when they bloom, read this Longfield Gardens’ article and then make your selections so you can look forward to months of beautiful spring color.

Written by Melinda Meyers

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything “ DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio segments. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’s web site is www.melindamyers.com.

“This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau and author member when using all or parts of this article.”

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