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.
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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.