Garden designer Sean Pritchard on the best tulips to display for a joyful spring interior | House & Garden

A large part of the appeal of tulips lies in their wonderful ability to make a bold statement indoors – how when they’re cut and displayed, they take on something of the character of the space in which they sit. Tulips grow into the room. They move and twist towards the light. Their colours bounce around objects and furniture. Tulips simply have an uncanny ability to elevate the interior decoration.

I pack as many tulips as I can into a jug, stabilising them with chicken wire or a flower frog, then let them do their own thing. I place them on top of books or within little nooks and crannies. I sometimes use glass vessels, especially for the taller varieties, as I find seeing the whole stem – how it bends to support the blousy flowers – incredibly evocative.

I treat tulips as annuals and plant them in both containers and in the ground. Most tulips rarely put on as good a show after their first year of flowering, which means new bulbs need to be planted each autumn to maintain a show-stopping display. In this respect, they’re more high maintenance than other spring bulbs – which tend to be predominantly perennial – but the extra effort is always worth it.

‘Annie Schilder’ emerges later in the season like a precious jewel of fiery orange. The goblet-shaped flower has the slightest flush of pink through the petals that tempers the orange a little but doesn’t reduce any of the vibrancy. This is one of those bright tulips that I love to display indoors – its boldness so alluring in the dark light of the cottage – and it flowers on a good-sized stem, making it perfect for cutting. ‘Annie Schilder’ is classed as a Triumph tulip: a classic, goblet-shaped, single flower on strong, robust stems. A real delight.

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