While many of the spring blooming bulbs come in colors of blue, yellow and white, tulips come in every color and gradation as the mind can imagine.
Tulips dazzle the eye but may frustrate you if you are unaware of their finicky ways.
Frustrations
I love tulips, but for every variety I have succeeded with, there are two that failed.
The gardener should realize that tulip producers do not view tulips as a perennial, but as an annual. The bulbs come to your door with a predisposition to succeed. They were grown to a blooming size and come with their own food store for the first growing season.
How to succeed
If you want a wonderful tulip display, plant the variety you want and plan on moving them after they die down next spring. Replant in a location where spectacular doesn’t have to be the byword and accept what you salvage.
Culture tips
Tulips are heavy feeders. They require a bed that is enriched with compost and peat moss and a time-release dose of fertilizer. At planting time use 9-9-6 bulb fertilizer. They don’t start growing until fall when soil temperatures drop to 60 degrees, and that is when they should be fed. They continue to uptake fertilizer until the foliage dies down. Fertilizing after they finished blooming does nothing for them.
If you opt to leave them in place be aware that site location can affect the bloom time and quality of bloom in the second year. If part of your flowerbed is in shade, bloom time will definitely be affected.
Planting depth
Depth of planting will also affect how well your tulips produce year after year. Catalogs recommend tulips be planted 6- to 8-inches deep. My soil is sandy loam and I plant mine 9- to 10-inches deep. The greater depth keeps the bulb from splitting and propagating itself through division. This allows the bulb to bulk up before multiplying and keeps it blooming.
What is a healthy bulb
Buy your bulbs where they are the healthiest. A healthy bulb should be plump and firm with a hard basal plate on the bottom. If they are soft and withered, don’t purchase them. And with bulbs, bigger does not always mean better. Tulip bulbs over 14 centimeters may produce deformed flowers. Oversized bulbs may indicate that the grower pushed his crop with nitrogen, which makes for a soft bulb.
Selection
If you want your tulips to return year after year, selection is important. Tulips that are most likely to perennialize are Darwiin hybrids, tetraploid single late tulips and Tulipa greigii, T. kaufmanniana and T. fosterianna.
The last three varieties are smaller than the Darwins, particularly the T. kaufmanniana and T. fosterianna. They grow to 6- to 8-inches-tall and open only when the sun shines, but readily multiply into a colony.
Planting time
Specialists suggest planting your tulips six weeks before the ground freezes. This gives the bulbs time to grow a root system.
Fertilization program
You may fertilize gently in the spring when they first emerge, but go lightly on nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will cause excessive growth and they won’t be able to hold their heads up. Remove flower heads after bloom to allow the strength of the plant to go to the bulb, not producing seeds.
