I find it really peaceful working in the garden in late autumn and for me it affords the best time for reflecting on successes and the inevitable failures that the last two
seasons have brought.

Without too much routine gardening to do, it is a great opportunity to plan for next year. It is also a good time to plant tulips bulbs… I have a huge weakness for tulips and every year find myself seduced by their vibrant colours and elegant forms. They are the stars of the spring show and can be enjoyed in a number of different ways.

For cut flowers the vegetable plot is an ideal place for tulips, they will thrive in an open situation with fertile, free draining soil and can be planted in rows for easy
picking. Containers filled with tulips also look fabulous, I prefer to keep mine simple using a single variety per pot.

Go for scented varieties and pack them in for impact. For large pots try
Single Late varieties such as the classic, deep maroon Queen of the Night or
Lily- flowered Queen of Sheba, Red Shine and White Triumphator.

You could try some old clay seed pans planted up with the diminutive species tulips such as Tulipahumilis or bakeri. These look great grouped together on the garden table where they can be enjoyed at close quarters. This year, for a touch of flamboyance, I am planting up some old galvanised wash tubs with Parrot tulips - Rococo, BlackParrot and Muriel.

Parrot tulips arose as sports or mutations of existing tulips and with their twisted and streaked petals they are perhaps the showiest of the species - but definitely not for the faint hearted. Tulips, of course, can also form an integral part of spring borders and I choose varieties to complement existing planting arrangements and colour schemes.

A few colour combinations which have worked for me and you may wish to try are as follows: Ballerina is the only orange Lily-flowered tulip; it is tall, elegant and deeply scented. I plant it with swathes of the snowy woodrush Luzula nivea.

Rich toffee and terracotta coloured tulips like Abu Hassan look great with fennel and copper coloured Carex buchananii , or the more bronzy Euphorbia “Fens Ruby” .

Try dark tulips such as Recreado and Negrita with the emerging silvery grey foliage of cardoons, Artmesia or Thalictrums as a backdrop - or the yellow leaved grass Carex elata“Aurea” for contrast. Finally, my favourite tulip is the dark
crimson Jan Reus. It looks fabulous with the deep pink flowers of Lamium Orvala
and emerging above the frothy pink cow parsley Chaerophyllum hirsutum Roseum .

If the weather is kind, tulips can be planted late into December
so there is still plenty of time to make a display – get planting!