In pictures: gardening experts choose their favourite spring bulbs

Sarah Raven, garden writer and broadcaster My favourite is a parrot tulip called ‘Orange Favourite’. It smells like a freesia, with a pinch of curry powder, has magnificent ­flowers with orange, green and ­crimson markings, flowers late (ideal for a tulip, to spread their ­season) and makes a brilliant cut flower. Team it with Allium hollan­dicum ‘Purple Sensation’, which ­carries on once the tulip’s petals have dropped. Photograph: Renato Valterza/CuboImages srl/Alamy

Chris Collins, Blue Peter gardener The native Fritillaria meleagris. I love it when nature throws a ­curveball, and that snakeskin pink and white chequerboard is amazing; it looks great among blue fescue grasses. Photograph: Getty

Anna Pavord, garden writer and author of Bulb: A Hand-Picked Selection Of The World’s Most ­Beautiful Bulbs I’ll be growing 20 kinds of tulip next spring, and the one I’m most looking forward to seeing again is ‘Cairo’. It blooms [in mid-April] in a sandy orange-brown that gets paler and browner as the flower ages. It’s scented and looks gorgeous with the bright foliage of ­Geranium maderense.
Photograph: Pawel Garski/Alamy

Chris Beardshaw, garden designer Narcissus ‘Silver Chimes’ is the last of all the daffodils to perform. The multiheaded flowers are infused with intoxicating perfumes more reminiscent of summer borders. Combine with Cyclamen coum, Erigeron karvinskianus and Erysimum ­‘Bowles’s Purple’. Photograph: Christopher Burrows/Alamy

Cleve West, garden designer Tulipa sprengeri saved my bacon by adding an important splash of colour to a Chelsea show garden a few years ago. It’s a zingy red that really sings without being gaudy. It is happy to naturalise where it can self-seed undisturbed. I use it among grasses and herbs in gravel gardens and among shrubs in semi-shade. Photograph: John Glover/Alamy

Ann-Marie Powell, garden designer I am hopelessly addicted to tulips. My favourite combination is half Tulipa 'Havran' mixed with a quarter Tulipa 'Prinses Irene' (pictured) and a quarter Tulipa 'Ballerina' through all borders close to the house, alongside paths or crammed into pots where they can be easily enjoyed. Photograph: GFC Collection/Alamy

Andy Sturgeon, garden designer The tulip ‘Spring Green’ is sturdy, upright, pretty and sophisticated, especially the soft green licks on the outside of the pale cream petals. I tend to use them with ­Tellima grandiflora, which ­flowers at the same time, and Euphorbia x martinii. Photograph: Dave Marsden/Alamy

Alys Fowler, broadcaster and ­Guardian gardening columnist I’d pick the hoop petticoat daffodil, Narcissus bulbocodium – it’s such a perfect, tiny daffodil. The flowers are shaped like a petticoat, obviously, and range from palest lemon yellow to butter. They look amazing ­naturalised on a bank of rough grass dancing about in the wind. Photograph: John Glover/Alamy

Tom Stuart-Smith, garden designer How about the tulip ‘Abu Hassan’, for its rich, generous colouring and a sheen like the finest silk? Its best companions are other tulips such as ‘Paul Scherer’ and ‘Couleur Cardinal’, all dark and rich. Photograph: Paroli Galperti/CuboImages srl/Alamy

Catherine Cutler, supervisor of the Mediterranean Biome at the Eden Project I always love white narcissi and I also love the cyclamineus narcissi with their swept back curved petals (like ballerina's dresses) so this is a great choice. Photograph: Jim Allan/Alamy

Roy Lancaster, plantsman and broadcaster It has to be a snowdrop, the appearance of which signals the coming of spring. I would not be without Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’, whose robust consti­tution, free-spreading nature and fragrant blooms make it a must for beginners. In my heavy clay soil it grows with Leucojum vernum, Cyclamen coum and Eranthis ‘Guinea Gold’.
Photograph: Malcolm Park flowers and gardens/Alamy

Lia Leendertz, Guardian Weekend garden writer I buy as many tulips as I can afford and fill a butcher’s sink with them, plus a load of pots. I don’t plant them with anything else – just tulips, each group on their own, so I don’t have one going over and ruining the look of the rest. I like the strong colours – purples, oranges and pinks. This year I’m going to get ‘Queen of the Night’, ­‘Ballerina’ (pictured) and ‘Couleur Cardinal’. Photograph: Anne Gilbert / Alamy/Alamy