I'm a tulip in a bottle, baby: A very British botanical beauty contest is gaining fans of all ages

Tulip flowers in bottles — Entries for last year’s competition in the barn at Matthew Rice’s moated Oxfordshire home, once part of Bampton Castle.

(Image credit: Clive Nichols for Country Life)

Whatever age the grower or however experienced the gardener, little beats the magic of seeing a tulip bud opening.

Months after planting those satin-smooth, chestnut-coloured bulbs, the moment has come when you discover what is inside, be it the feathered frills of a glorious Parrot or the sinuous curves of the lily-flowered tulip.

When artist Matthew Rice became president of his local flower group, the Bampton Gardening Club, Oxfordshire, he wondered how best he could help spread the word about the organisation, which has been going since 1860.

He hit upon the idea of Tulip in a Bottle, a competition to be held at his home, Ham Court, in the Cotswolds. ‘The idea was to find something that everyone could take part in, whatever their age and gardening background,’ he says. ‘Anyone can grow a tulip.’

The contest has different classes — Parrots, Decorative, Lily flowered and so forth — covering several of the 16 divisions of Tulipa. Each stem is displayed in an old milk bottle, a nod to the traditional brown beer bottles long used to display historic tulips by the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society. Each entry is numbered on a card in Matthew's sweeping calligraphic script.

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This year, says Matthew, the judge is garden designer Bunny Guinness, ‘the Gardeners’ Question Time heroine’. As in previous years, all entrants will receive a certificate designed by Matthew, which, as last year’s judge, Polly Nicholson, holder of the National Collection of Historic Tulips with Plant Heritage, says, ‘is worth the trip in itself’.

With tea and cakes, too, it promises to be an excellent afternoon.

Tulip in a Bottle 2026 is on April 18, from 10am–4pm, at Ham Court, Ham Court Farm, Bampton, Oxfordshire. Tickets are available on the door, with entry at £3 per tulip. (Tulips must be entered between 10am and 12 noon.)

Previously the Editor of GardenLife, Tiffany has also written and ghostwritten several books. She launched The Telegraph gardening section and was editor of IntoGardens magazine. She has chaired talks and in conversations with leading garden designers. She gardens in a wind-swept frost pocket in Northamptonshire and is learning not to mind — too much — about sharing her plot with the resident rabbits and moles.