April is a busy month in the garden.
Tulipa 'Johann Strauss'
This beautiful dwarf variety is perfect for planting in containers or in the rockery. It produces currant-red flowers, edged with sulphur-yellow, with golden yellow bases in March and April. The leaves are also attractive, thanks to their purple markings. Tulips are best planted in November as this minimises the risk of attack from the fungal disease, tulip fire, which causes the foliage to become distorted and covered with fuzzy, grey fungal growth and the flowers to either fail to open or to be marked with bleached spots. Any bulbs that become infected with this disease are best thrown away and the ground they were planted in should not be used to grow any tulips for several years. Remove the flowers as they fade to prevent plants wasting energy setting seed.