‘Shot! The 2023 Arundel Castle Tulip Festival’
With over 100,000 blooms and 130 varieties, Arundel Castle puts on Britain’s biggest display of tulips
Tulips are one of the most endearing symbols of Spring. Hailing originally from Turkey, there are currently over 3,000 registered varieties. These are divided into fifteen groups based on flower type, size and blooming period. Today, tulips are more popular than ever, in fact they are the most-sold flowers in the USA, with one tulip sold for every two people in 2020. That’s 175m stems!
Their popularity also explains why tulip festivals have proven so popular, not just in Holland, the modern-day home of the tulip, but right across the UK.
With over 100,000 blooms, Arundel Castle’s Tulip Festival is arguably the biggest in Britain and back in November the garden team under award-winning head gardener Martin Duncan, planted 130 different varieties to ensure there would always be something to see during the five weeks or so that the festival runs. This year, it began on April 1st and ended on May 6th.
Photographing a tulip festival can be a frustrating experience. Ultimately, it’s all about the weather. The cooler it’s been, the later the tulips will bloom, they’re at their best for just a week or so and of course the weather on the day makes a big difference to how they photograph.
I left my visit as late as possible and on Martin’s advice settled on April 29th, which by happenstance turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far. First thing that Saturday morning, the Earl’s Garden was lush and verdant. With the palms out of their winter wraps, the garden took on an almost tropical feel.
Being that this was the sixth time I’d photographed the festival, (Covid put paid to it in 2020 and 2021) my mission was to avoid repeating myself. That’s quite a challenge as, in truth, the display changes little from one year to the next. With space in the Earl’s Garden at a premium, there’s only so many beds that can be planted.
Personally, rather than just adding a few new varieties, I’d like to see more creativity with the planting. That being said, I did notice there were more swathes of tulips around the grounds than ever before. And it’s when they are planted en masse, that tulips look their most spectacular.
I had big expectations for the festival’s centrepiece, the Labyrinth, as it was planted with 14,000 King’s Blood tulips, a late flowering red variety. Unfortunately the delineation of the curved beds was less defined than I can recall in past years, meaning it just didn’t look that impressive.
Neither did the Stumpery, which last year looked the best I’d ever seen it. This time round, however, it was lacking in colour with few blooms on display.
One thing I really liked, was the abundance of a variety called Dream Touch.
This double tulip with its gorgeous burgundy petals fringed with white, looks almost like a rose and was planted against a pale blue flower which really set it off nicely. It was also the variety that was at its very best during my visit.
Also looking good was the Wildflower Garden which was planted with a mass of predominantly purple blooms, and the Bow Tie beds which included one of my favourite varieties, Paul Scherer, which is the darkest, blackest tulip of them all.
Being that the tulip festival is the highlight of the castle garden’s year, the one thing I’d like to see in future is a little more ambition when it comes to the display. In the past, I’ve mentioned having different themes or incorporating tulip-inspired artworks. As good as it is, it cannot rest on its laurels.
Behind the shot: All these images were taken handheld with the iPhone 14 Pro. I think this is the first time shooting a garden that I preferred my iPhone images over those taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1, which says a lot about how far iPhone camera technology has come. For me, it was all about looking for interesting compositions and as I’ve already mentioned, trying not to take the same pictures as I’ve done in the past.
My thanks to Martin Duncan for the invite.
About the author: Based in Sussex-by-the-Sea, on England’s south coast, Gary is a creative writer and image-maker. He specialises in creating out of the ordinary portraits of musicians and people with interesting faces, as well as photographing some of the world’s finest flowers and gardens, not forgetting an array of automotive exotica.
On the writing side, he has used his research skills to author deep dives into some noteworthy songs beginning with Bryan Ferry’s ‘These Foolish Things’ ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan and ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott the Hoople.
He has also written a biography of Robert Palmer and the stories behind Whitesnake’s blatant Led Zep rip-off, ‘Still Of The Night’, Harry Styles’ anthem to positivity, ‘Treat People With Kindness’ and the little known Queen track ‘Cool Cat.’
Most recently, Gary has penned the fascinating story behind George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’ as well as ‘Believe It Or Not’ a look into the rise of fake news.
All these can be found here on Medium, along with his reviews of gigs and events and chats with musicians including the likes of Royal Blood, Joe Satriani and Wolf Alice.
