In the Garden with: Polly Nicholson
Last week, on a still, sunlit day in early Spring, we stepped through the gates of Blackland House and into Polly Nicholson’s extraordinary walled garden: an immaculately designed and quietly magical space in the heart of Wiltshire. The garden is bordered by warm Cotswold stone walls and punctuated with clipped topiary and gravel paths, with raised cold frames from heritage greenhouse maker Foster & Pearson that line the back border like neat glass-topped chests, filled to the brim with seedlings for the season ahead.
At its centre lies a formal sunken water feature with a giant clam shell resting in the middle like a natural sculpture, reflecting the soft spring light. Species tulips and pulsatilla vulgaris, the Pasque flowers, sprout confidently from the gravel, with large galvanised tubs brimming with early blooms dotted around. Every detail feels considered, from the heritage plant labels to the elegant supports, each one handmade by the gardening team on site.
To the left, a long greenhouse, also Foster & Pearson, stretches along the boundary, and it’s here that we found ourselves, seated inside the glassy warmth, sunlight streaming across the stone floor as we spoke to Polly about tulips, history, and her remarkable journey into one of the world’s most beguiling flowers.
Polly is the holder of the National Collection of Tulipa (Historic), and it doesn’t take long in her company to understand why. Her knowledge of tulips is encyclopaedic, but it’s laced with a romanticism that comes from decades of obsession.
“My route into tulips wasn’t typical,” she says, smiling. “My background is actually in antiquarian books and manuscripts. I am fourth-generation of the booksellers, George Bayntun, in Bath, and my first job was at Sotheby’s as an antiquarian book specialist. My first encounter with tulips was through early herbals and botanical books, so I suppose I came to them through print.”
That seed of fascination led her to the English Gardening School at Chelsea Physic Garden, where she completed a diploma in horticulture just before the birth of her son, twenty-one years ago. But the true beginnings of her tulip collection came later, almost accidentally, after moving to Blackland House.
“We had these enormous empty herbaceous borders in the walled garden, so I just threw some tulip bulbs in,” she recalls. “They came up the next spring, and that was it. I’d caught the tulip bug.”
What began as curiosity soon grew into the UK’s only national collection of historic tulip cultivars, held under the stewardship of Plant Heritage. “I didn’t even realise I had a collection until Anna Pavord, who wrote The Tulip, visited and said, ‘Polly, you’ve got the biggest collection of historic tulips in the country.’ I had no idea.”
Today, Polly curates between 120 and 150 cultivars - a number that shifts slightly year on year as she adds new finds or retires varieties (or the squirrels retire them for her). “It sounds like a lot, but then you visit Hortus Bulborum in the Netherlands! It's like a cathedral to tulips. Still, in the UK, I think I’m the only one with a collection of this kind.”
What defines a tulip as ‘historic’ isn’t always its age, she explains. “Some date back to 1595. Others are newer but bred in the spirit of earlier varieties, like a 2008 introduction that mimics a broken Rembrandt tulip and hasn’t been released commercially. If it’s rare, unusual, and hard to source, it’s worth preserving.”
Sourcing them is half the fun. Polly has a knack for spotting rare or reintroduced cultivars buried in obscure catalogues. “I scan every printed and online tulip catalogue I can find,” she says. “I’m good at picking out things other people overlook because I know what I’m looking for.”
Precious English florists’ tulips come through the Tulip Society, of which Polly is a member. These extra special varieties aren’t available commercially, ever, but instead are passed carefully from grower to grower. “It’s a network, really. A slow, deliberate kind of collecting. A bit like rare books.”
As we talk, the conversation veers from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (the native homes of wild tulips) to Dutch old masters, to broken tulips, to Carolus Clusius, the 16th-century botanist whose passion and plant-sharing helped spark Tulipmania in the Netherlands. “His garden kept getting raided because the bulbs were so valuable. Eventually he gave up and shared the collection - thank goodness he did! Tulips spread because of that generosity.”
Despite the grandeur of the collection, Polly’s approach is deeply practical, and refreshingly grounded. “You won’t see herbaceous borders full of tulips here,” she says. “We trial combinations up in the flower field, but for our main beds, we use species tulips. They’re tiny, delicate, and they come back year after year. They don’t interrupt the rest of the planting, and they naturalise beautifully.”
Her containers tell a similar story. “We don’t compost bulbs after one season. We dry them, clean them, and replant them back of house. Some dwindle, some thrive. The flowers might be smaller, but they’re prettier in a more subtle, natural way.”
And then there are the pests: deer, squirrels, slugs, even a determined mouse who keeps returning to the same pot inside the walled garden. “We put chicken wire hats on all our pots,” she says. “And cut short lengths of holly to keep squirrels off. We’ve even tumbled bulbs in chilli powder.”
This is gardening that balances art and endurance - rigorous enough for RHS talks, but always in tune with the earth and the seasons. “We’re Soil Association certified, 100% organic. I’m constantly thinking about how to make what we do here more sustainable. Tulips can be one-hit wonders, but they don’t have to be.”
Climate is a growing challenge. “Species tulips are much less demanding,” she explains. “But we need cold winters to trigger flowering. Some years we don’t get enough chill, and everything’s slow or unpredictable. Other years, it’s too wet, which encourages tulip fire, a fungal disease that can stay in the soil for up to seven years.”
Polly’s answer? Meticulous rotation and a deep knowledge of the land. “In our field beds, we dig up the collection every year, dry the bulbs, and replant in fresh soil. In the perennial beds, we let them go a few years, then give the beds a break—green manures, different planting, soil health always comes first.”
The tulips are part of a bigger picture: a garden that breathes and changes. But they remain her centrepiece. “My favourite type? I think lily-flowered tulips. That elegant, pointed shape. They’re old - dating back to the 1600s - and they perennialise really well.”
At the time of our visit, tulip season was just beginning to stir in the garden. Polly pointed out a few early risers already in bloom including tulipa Turkestanica; and spoke with quiet anticipation about those still to come including her beloved Duc van Tol cultivars. “You never know quite how the season will unfold,” she said, “but that’s half the fun of it.”
For those wanting to learn more, Polly’s book The Tulip Garden offers a deeper look into her collection at Blackland House, combining the rich cultural history of tulips with practical advice on how to grow them (whether in borders, containers, meadow settings or cutting gardens).
The garden itself opens from time to time for workshops, small group tours, and special events, including charity open days and annual openings for the National Garden Scheme during peak tulip season.
You can find details of upcoming Garden Days and events on Polly’s website through the link below:
