Ciscoe Morris shares some helpful tips for growing tulips this spring!
If you're planning a trip to the Tulip Festival which runs through April, you might want to go early this year. Thanks to the warm spring, the best show will most likely be in the beginning of the month.
The question I'm asked most about tulips is how to get them to bloom for more than one season. We've all heard that you should wait for the foliage on tulips to die back naturally before you cut it off. That's true for all other spring bulbs, but not for tulips. Tulip leaves are susceptible to fungus disease and should be removed earlier to prevent the infection from reaching the bulb. Tulips are big eaters; fertilize them with organic bulb food as soon as foliage appears, and again at full-bloom. As soon as the flower fades, pinch off the button like appendage remaining on the top of the stem, but leave the rest of the stem intact. That will keep your tulip from wasting energy on seed production and allow it to send more energy down to be stored in the bulb. Then wait only 3 weeks before cutting the foliage right to the ground. Try to plant the bulbs where they won't receive summer water as that could cause them to rot. Otherwise dig the bulbs and store them an unheated garage until it's time to plant them out again in fall. With a bit of luck, your tulips will put on 'Outlandish' display again next spring.
When planting your tulips, if you have an area with well drained soil, keep tulips coming back year after year, by planting them up to 12 inches deep. This works well for both Darwin and Empress hybrids. If squirrels tend to eat your bulbs, protect them by surrounding them with chicken wire when you plant them. If the squirrels make a habit of eating the buds when they emerge in spring, you can try making a hot pepper spray (protect your eyes when spraying) or buy a Jack Russell terrier, and make sure the first word it learns is 'Squirrel'!
Another way to get tulips to come back and bloom every year is to plant species tulips. These natives of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan make up for their small stature with vibrant colors, and a tough constitution. They often naturalize and come back year after year where the hybrids fail. A few favorites are Tulips bakeri 'Lilac wonder' (lilac flowers with a yellow center), the unpronounceable T. kopakowskiana (yellow flowers, streaked red), and the even harder to pronounce, T. vvedennskyi 'Tangerine Beauty' (red flowers streaked orange-flame).
You are undoubtedly aware of how difficult it is to keep squires from digging up and eating the bulbs. In the past I often recommended planting the bulbs surrounded by chicken wire or hardware cloth. Now there's a new way protect the bulbs that is much easier and just as effective. Dig the hole and plant the bulbs as you normally would, but instead of caging it, cover the bulb with Chicken or poultry grit. Poultry grit is made up of crushed granite, shale, or oyster shells, and is available at feed stores and some hardware stores. The squirrels don't like trying to dig through the sharp grit and quickly give up.
If you want to use the tulip blooms as cut flowers, use sharp pruners, cut at a slant and immediately put the stems in lukewarm water. Remove any leaves that would be under water in the arrangement. Then recut the stem under water. That removes air bubbles that cling to the end of the stem and impede water uptake. Keep the cut blooms out of direct sunlight, and move it to a cool location at night. Rather than relying on preservatives to prevent bacterial buildups, I find that it's just as effective to replace all of the water in the vase every 2 days. Don't place your bouquet anywhere near fruit. Fruit releases a gas that causes flowers to age much faster. An interesting fact about tulips is that they continue to grow after being cut, up to an inch or more. They are "phototropic", bending towards the light, so rotate containers daily to keep stems more upright.
Enjoy your tulips, and enjoy this wonderful spring we are having!
Ciscoe
