Best organic spring bulbs for pots

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• August in the balcony garden

• The very best organic bulbs I tested in 2025

• Why I’m reusing my tulips

• Changes I’m making to my bulb display for 2026

• What I’m sowing in September for homegrown winter vegetables

• List of certified organic bulb web shops

I left bird feed in an open closet in the study (evidence of my cognitive problems) and some mice have been having an absolute party, spreading the seeds and their number twos around in it. We cleaned it all up, which caused them to move onto my easily accessible plant feed (soy pellets), so that was all great fun and caused a lot of upheaval in our house where nothing truly exciting that’s not plant related ever happens these days.

Before we skip ahead to spring, let’s talk summer. My garden is around its peak. This is a time I savor (except for all the watering). The photos I take now will last me through winter. I try to ignore the murmurs that autumn is fast approaching that have been going around since the end of July (Ben Probert defends the opposite in this excellent post to stop this seasonal contamination).

So what is it like, summer? I’m sitting on my chair, looking out over my tiny garden and beyond. Oddly, there’s a faint smell of manure in the air, but it’s not unpleasant.1 The leaves of the red beech in front of me are rustling, and so are those of four more trees in the park behind the old schoolhouse, towering over the surrounding houses.

I look around to check on my friends, the flowers. They’re all trying their hardest to be noticed. They’re peacocks showing off their colours. They even look like they want to make sounds, like the paper thin flowers of the harebell hoping to ring, or the salvias announcing their arrival with their beaks wide open. The dahlia flowers are reaching for the sun just like my legs are, lifted up high. I imagine they might like it as much as I do. The sun that melts the skin, the boundary between body and air disappearing. Like a warming potion, I drink it in and am left feeling satisfied and sleepy.

Onto spring, because there’s lots to talk about. You can order spring bulbs now, just make sure you either have a cool, dark and dry place to store them until planting time (which is October/November for tulips, earlier for the rest) or that sending can be delayed until that time. I store them in a cardboard box in my unheated bedroom but with the newly acquired mice I may have to rethink this (they eat bulbs).

In 2024 I learned that 60 bulbs were not enough for a 9 m2 garden. They made the balcony even more depressing because the little islands of bright colour emphasised the lack of colour everywhere else (except for the other colourful thing: green algae). I didn’t know they flowered at different times yet and part of the bulbs never flowered at all. So for 2025 I went all in and I was not disappointed. I’m going to count how many I bought, just for you (I don’t really want to know).

Alright. In autumn 2024, I planted 121 tulips and a staggering 313 other spring bulbs. (What?!) But… it looked great for months. I don’t think everyone needs as many per m2 though (and perhaps I don’t either). Again, quite a number of them never flowered. Some of that was preventable, because I didn’t soak the anemone blanda before planting, the snake’s head fritillaries should’ve had much more water and the bigger botanical tulips didn’t have sufficient space.

Many gardeners have stopped using pesticides in the garden (great!) but often the plants, bulbs and seeds we buy are produced with a mix of pesticides and fertilisers we don’t want in our gardens (let alone in the environment). The combined effects of such a cocktail of pesticides have not been tested for pollinators, soil and humans.

Certified organic growers have to adhere to stricter rules regarding pest control. My spring bulbs in 2025 were all organic. This means a better choice for the environment but fewer varieties to choose from. I didn’t mind. I mainly wanted the big orange ‘Ballerina’ tulips, they were available, I was happy. I’ve added a list of certified organic bulb webshops at the end of this post plus their shipping countries. Note: not all of the bulbs I name here are available in every one of the web shops, many have a limited stock (so we must all order them and stimulate this business)!2

Now, the awards for the best organic spring bulbs of 2025!

Best early bulbs: for humans and for pollinators, because other flowers are scarce

1. Crocus chrysanthus ‘Romance:’ a buttery yellow crocus, the first flowers at the end of February. Instant joy for dreary days.

2. Iris reticulata ‘J.S. Duijt:’ a work of art with a hint of leopard.

3. Scilla siberica: small blue stacked up flowers that sparkle in the sun.

Best bulbs that-aren’t-super-early-and-aren’t-tulips

1. Botanical tulip ‘Little Beauty:’ stunning hot pink, especially when backlit. Buy them and put them everywhere. They’re small because they’re botanical but they’re gorgeous and perennial.

2. Allium Schubertii: what a showstopper! Fireworks! These did surprisingly well in my big container close to lots of other plants, with a flower diameter of 40 cm.

3. Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness:’ I love this for its amazing perfume, I’ve never smelled anything like it. I’d describe it as sweet citrus. I bought them the year before, they aren’t available as organic bulbs. However, they can be replaced by ‘Bridal Crown’ which has similar properties (including an amazing scent, says the internet).

Best tulips

1. ‘Apricot Impression:’ my absolute favourite tulip. This is not the soft kind of apricot. It starts out a bit lighter but quickly turns to a combination of vivid orange with pink mashed in. If it’s not available, I think ‘Design Impression’ comes closest. Early flowering.

2. ‘Ronaldo:’ a dark colour, somewhere in between red and purple. Not as tall as the others. Flowered for almost three weeks in-between the earlies and the lates. Provides good contrast. Mid flowering.

3. ‘Ballerina:’ beautiful smell and an instant injection of colour. Late flowering.

Best combinations

1. Tulips ‘Apricot Impression’ with ‘Blushing Lady’ and ‘Ronaldo.’

2. Geum ‘Mai Tai’ with tulip ‘Little Beauty.’

3. Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ with tulip ‘Ronaldo.’ What can I say, I love geums.

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I left all of my tulips in their pots, because a) I didn’t have the energy to take them all out; b) I didn't remember what was where; c) I spent too much on them not to try; and d) I’m stubborn and think I’m the only one who can make them repeat flower in containers (or some of them). Okay, not the only one, part of why I'm confident is because I know @greenhousemate on Instagram successfully does it with Darwin hybrid tulips planted around perennials in pots. She treats them just like other perennials, with regular feeds and watering. I suspect the secret is not to plant too many tulips together, pick the more perennial varieties and feed them regularly.

I really loved the spring bulbs this year but there’s some room for improvement on the tulip front. What I suspect will be the most impactful modification is spreading the tulips out more over all the different pots. Not only do I think this might make tulips reflower, I also prefer the aesthetic of a garden where tulips are dotted around. I think it makes them stand out more, like stars scattered across a dark sky, instead of having them all close together and fighting for attention.

I’d like to intensify the colour palette, making it all as saturated as ‘Apricot Impression.’ So there won’t be a reprise of ‘Pink Impression’ (I hadn’t expected it to be quite so pastel) and any white flowers will be moved to less prominent spots.

‘Ballerina’ has proven to be a powerhouse. Even though I love orange flowers dearly, they look their best with other contrasting colours. The 2025 late bulb display was more like a King’s Day decor than I’d like (on the King’s birthday the Dutch partake in day drinking, flea markets and turning everything orange: streets, clothing, faces etc). I plan on adding more of ‘Ronaldo’ and some hot pink tulips (perhaps ‘Tineke van der Meer’ or ‘Big Love’). For even more contrast, I’ve chosen lilac wallflowers instead of orange, and I hope the forget-me-nots will actually flower next year.

Flowers - next year’s garden starts now!

• Forget-me-nots: to combine the late bulbs with.

• Snapdragons: the jury’s still out on whether I like these at all but if I like any, it’ll probably be ‘Madame Butterfly Cherry Bronze.’ Colour pop!

• Annual delphiniums: ‘Misty Lavender’ and ‘Blue Butterfly.’

• (opium) Poppies: native poppies and ‘Miss Lauren’s Grape.’

• Dusky cranesbill (perennial): gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

Vegetables - for mixed salads in autumn, I like to mix all leaves with some cherry tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic.

• Rocket salad: I like my salads spicy!

• Mustard leaves: ‘Purple Frills,’ another spicy one.

• Lettuce: ‘Green Salad Bowl,’ ‘Marvel Of Four Seasons’ and ‘Lollo Rossa.’ Good taste and looks. I’ll put them together in my window boxes.

Organic bulb suppliers, certifications and shipping areas:
🌐 Organicbulbs.com @organicflowerbulbs SKAL and Soil Association certified (UK, EU, US, Canada)
🌐 Naturalbulbs.eu @naturalbulbs SKAL certified (EU)
🌐 Bloemoloog.nl @bloemoloog SKAL certified (EU)
🌐 Fruithillfarm.com @fruithill_farm Organic Trust certified, although certificate does not specifically state flower bulbs are organic (Ireland, UK)
🌐 Organicgardener.co.uk @organicgardeneruk SKAL and Soil Association certified (UK)
🌐 Biologischebloembollen.nl @huiberts_bio_bollen SKAL certified (NL, BE)