It is all hands on deck at Holker Hall, as the gardening team embraces its biggest ever challenge: planting more than 22,000 bulbs in just a few weeks.
The tulip displays in the spectacular 25-acre garden have become a tourist attraction in their own right, and head gardener Matthew Murgatroyd is determined to make his mark.
“I have just completed my first full year here,” said Matthew, formerly Deputy Head of Gardens at Highgrove, the private residence of King Charles and the Queen Consort. “It’s been great. It’s just a fantastic garden to work in.
“The first year is always a year of observation, so I am going into my first winter where I can really come up with new things and new ideas.”
And his ambitious plans will see more than 22,000 bulbs planted at Holker Hall and Gardens, near Cartmel, in Cumbria over the next couple of weeks – weather-permitting. Matthew will be joined by his five other garden team colleagues, but admits it is a challenging time.
“We’ve had a slow start this year because of the weather,” he explains. “It’s challenging, working the wet garden.
“There’s a team of us and although we have specialisms, we all get involved in planting bulbs. It’s a bit of a thankless task stuck on your own.
“Last year we probably planted about 14 or 15,000 bulbs, so this year’s 22,000-plus is one of the biggest amounts Holker has ever planted.”
Despite the grand scale, Matthew, originally from Levens, says planting for Holker is not dissimilar to how you would plant at home.
He says: “There’s no secret shortcut. What we do just varies depending where we’re planting: if we’re planting in grass we will use a bulb planter; for the small areas where we plant small bulbs like crocus and some anemones, we plant those with a crowbar – we literally drop a metal bar in the ground and backfill that hole.
“When we are planting our pots we will take the soil down to a layer and then plant and cover the bulb. However, a lot of the time we will literally be on hands and knees with a trowel and plant one bulb at a time, especially if it gives us the best effect we want.”
This year the majority of bulbs being planted are tulips, as these have become Holker’s main feature in the spring. The gardening team won’t be planting any daffodils for the 2024 season, but Matthew explains this is because they have already had such success in naturalising – allowing the bulbs to spread naturally – the existing daffodil collection.
“Tulips are not very good at flowering a second time,” he continues. “They are bred so much for the single flower and all the varieties you get have not focused on repeat flowering. If you’re at home planting tulips and kept cutting off the flower heads, you could get it flowering again really nicely. It’s just not viable for us.
“It also means we can change the display each year, so if you come this spring it will be totally different display to what you’ve seen previously.”
Holker Halls has been developed by the Cavendish family since the 1600s, and current owner Lucy Cavendish is an artist.
Head gardener Matthew says it means she comes up with the colours and framework for the displays, and then it is his responsibility to find the right tulip, at the right time, in the right shade and the right height to match Lucy’s colour and creativity.
Holker Hall and Gardens is currently closed to the public, but the café opens on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Christmas, and visitors get access to the first two gardens free-of-charge during this period.
Matthew says: “They have got great formal structure, which is really nice to see in the winter especially, once we’ve tidied it up. We have a lot of topiary and if you get a frosty morning you see all the contrasting shapes.”
Matthew’s Top Tips for bulb planting at home
- Plant in November or early December, once the soil has gone cold
- Make sure your soil is free-draining and use compost
- Think about height differences with your bulb choices: it’s nice to have some really tall tulips and then some lower height, so you get contrast
- Match your colours: so choose the same colours in different shapes / heights / varieties
- Think about naturalising your bulbs: use daffodils and let them naturalise, so you don’t have to plant every year. You can then use tulips as your ‘wow’ factor
- Pick varieties that flower throughout spring, so you have colour as long as possible into the season.
- In high-risk areas putting manure on top of where the bulbs are planted can help stop pheasants and squirrels digging up the bulbs and eating them
- Don’t always plant tulips in the same place, consider alternating the types of bulbs you plant
