Down a country lane, past the ancient wooded glades and heathland of Danbury Common, you will find Furzelea garden exploding in colour from myriad tulips in spring. ‘I love to see the garden coming to life again after winter, with new shoots breaking through the earth, fresh leaves unfurling on the trees, and a succession of spring bulbs,’ says Avril Cole-Jones.
Each autumn, she plants around 2,000 tulips, choosing late varieties for a mid-April display. ‘I leave tulips in from one year to the next, and these tend to flower earlier,’ she notes. ‘The deeper they are planted, the greater the chance they will return, largely because there’s less chance I will inadvertently put a fork through them.’
The garden was a very different picture when she and her husband, Roger, first arrived. ‘It was a jungle of
