Burnby Hall Tulip Festival 2025

Yorkshire Post

Burnby Hall head gardener, Jill Ward, talks to the Yorkshire Post about the garden's forthcoming tulip festival and how preparations take place all year round to make the annual event a success.

Transcript

00:00My name is Jill Ward, I'm the head gardener here at Bemby Hall Gardens in Pocklington.

00:15We've been working really since last July towards our annual tulip festival which runs from the end

00:21of April through to about the 10th of May and we've been planning and planting tulips, started

00:26planting tulips in December and the last few weeks have really been getting them ready to go out at

00:32the end of this week. We've got around about 130 varieties with around 20 new varieties to us this

00:38year. I think this is about the 12th year we've done it and it does seem to be getting more popular

00:44every year. Spring's been fantastic this year right from February when we started with the snow drops

00:49and then through to Crocus, Narcissi and now the tulips. I think the dry weather has really helped

00:56a lot of the flowers look fantastic. The timing has been really good this year and as I say the

01:01dry weather has really helped and look really good. We get them from a couple of suppliers,

01:06one is called Parkers and the other one is Peter Nyssen, but they all come from Holland really.

01:12When I start planning really at this time of year, so I look at what we've grown this year and what

01:17looks good, I would order them in August September and then we delay planting until about December. That

01:24just helps us prevent some of the diseases that they can get so close to Christmas as possible

01:29is when we plant them. There's beds all around the gardens, but then we've got well over 100 pots

01:35that we put out the week before the festival and they spread all along the pathways. I really like

01:42this one, this is Moon Blush and there's one called National Velvet as well which is a lovely red,

01:48but they're all beautiful, it's difficult to choose one really. I'll be getting my notebook out and just

01:53making notes on the timings and the colours and hopefully putting together some nice mixes for next year.

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