Tulip Bulbs
There are literally millions of these bulbs planted every year – a recent statistic from the City of Ottawa pointed out that this favoured city (gifted by the Dutch for sheltering the Dutch royal family during WW2) has over a million bulbs within its borders and that number continues to grow year after year.
There are a few things you should know about tulip bulbs if you want to succeed with them.
They should be planted 6-8 weeks before freezeup in your area. Any sooner and they stand a good chance of starting to grow instead of staying dormant. This early growth means they’ll likely freeze and die during the winter.
They require 10-12 weeks (minimum) of cold/freezing soil temperatures to set their flower buds. This is why Southern gardeners who don’t have this kind of cold have to purchase pre-chilled bulbs in order to obtain blooms. This is why the bulbs simply won’t set flowers after this first year unless they are dug up and pre-chilled.
In their native Turkish mountains, they get lots of spring and fall rain but almost no summer rain. They go dormant during the summer and if you water them too much (because they’re in a flower bed) you’ll rot them off and they’ll disappear from your garden.
The recommended planting depth is two times their height. I’ve had them buried 3 feet deep and they still came up and bloomed.
The interesting thing about tulip bulbs is how they figure out the depth they require. When started from seed (that’s how the species propagate themselves) the tiny seeds sit on the soil surface. Once they start to germinate, a special root goes down into the ground and then contracts, pulling the rest of the bulb down along with it. This root grows a bit every year and as the bulb matures and increases in size, the root eventually pulls it to its proper flowering depth. Once the proper depth is reached, this root is no longer produced by the bulb but rather flower buds are produced.
Generally, if you give a hybrid tulip bulb fertile soil (a shovel of compost every spring) and don’t water it during the summer, you’ll get many years of enjoyment from it.
Species tulip bulbs will self-sow and turn themselves into a lovely bit of a nuisance as they spread through your garden. You’ll have to weed these out.
But on the whole, tulip bulbs are easy to grow. Put ‘em in the dirt, cover ‘em over, soak ‘em in to discourage the squirrels and just wait (the hardest part) for spring to show you some of nature’s loveliest blooms.
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