Couple of years ago I must have at leat 10 kinds, blooming beautifully. They "disappearing through the years", start with less bloom, then some never came back. Should I have dug them up and "rest" certain time of the year, or did aninimals eat them or they rot? What should I do better?
Tulips Disappearing through the years?
Most Tulip varieties around here are to be considered annuals. Some may do better, specially if they are fed a couple of times. Also they need to be planted deeper that the normal 6 or so inches. Mulched to be sure the place where they are planted stays as cool as possible during the hot summer. Tulips would only rot if they are in an area with very poor drainage....they then suffocate and rot. Voles may eat away the roots at the bottom of the bulb, but you would have noticed that.
Look at all the plantings at the business parks here around town......planted with new bulbs each year to have a splendid show.
Hi Farmerpickle,
In Australia tulips will not even flower properly in Queensland. I live closer to the snowy end of Australia and mine do well as it gets really cold here. That is if we do not get an absolutely jam packed rain season. Lots of bulbs in different parts of Australia have to be pulled up and cooled so that they are made to believe that they have had a really cold period otherwise they rot and mould sitting in the ground during summer. I have a friend in Queensland and I have told her to pull them up and put them in the crisper of her fridge for at least 8 weeks before planting them out again. She is going to let me know how she goes this season with them.
Cheers
Windale
I spray my tulips (at planting time) with Ropel to keep the voles from eating them. This may last a year but usually they are planted every year if you want to be sure to have them. Every now and then some will last and the species tulips do last longer (wild ones). but they are much smaller also. As bleek said, just treat them as annuals.
The Darwin Hybrids are better than some of the others for perennializing; many sources sell jumbo bulbs of them as 'Perennial Tulips' and I read a gardener in Arkansas had 7 years of bloom from them.
I have an area that is very lean, dry, and rocky and tulips love it. I have some late doubles there that have bloomed for the last 3 years. I've read from some sources that tulips like dry summer baking during dormancy and I know some gardeners who dig and store them dry during summer and replant in fall with success.
Good luck, Neal
I am trying tulips for the first time this year. The clusiana varieties are said to do well without cold dormancy so I am trying 'Lady Jane'.
I had a friend in Alabama who used tulips in pots. They were given pride of place in bloom, moved to a corner of the garden to ripen the bulbs after bloom, and given cold dormancy in an old refridgerator in the garage. A bit more trouble than I want right now.
Beth
Farmer,
I might get 15% that come back and rebloom - but even then they are usually smaller than the previous year. Southern gardens just do not get enough sustained cold for them to perennialize well. They also like dry soil, especially in summer. Hyacinths and Daffs return much better for me.
This message was edited Sep 29, 2005 6:35 PM
Steve,
Ever visited the Dallas Arboretum and saw what Tulip varieties they planted? I saw it several times and at that time they had a small "test" area where they planted Tulips and let them come back for several years.
I do know that they use the Tulips as an annual and they do very well. Mind you, they do plant "pre-cooled" Tulips.
Also Las Colinas uses quite a few Tulips in not so many varieties, but large amounts and I believe mainly in Cottage type tulips and some Lilyflowering.
Bleek,
I have never been over there to that event, though I know it is a big deal and they show the flowers on television during the spring quite a bit on the news. I will have to visit them this coming spring and check it out in person :-)
I usually plant a few hundred tulips each year as an annual and you're right, they do quite well for me too - but the bulbs tend to split ater the first year and not flower or the flowers are short. I have found that Single Lates and Rembrandts are the ones that seem to come back the most for me. I have one patch interestingly that I planted 20 the first year, had 16 flower the 2nd year, but only two the third - and we had a really wet year last year for us with 50" of rain, so maybe that's the reason for the poorer showing. This year has been incredibly dry though, which most bulbs prefer, so we'll see what happens.
Cottage, Darwin or Single Late is the same. You will find that varieties like Mrs. J.T. Scheepers, Renown, Halcro, Maureen, Menton, Big Smile and the likes will do well.
The "real" Rembrandt Tulips are actually diseased with a virus. Growers in Holland (if they are ven grown anymore in Holland) can only grow them if they are planted far away from the regular Tulips, so aphids can not (or hardly can) bring the virus over to the "healthy" Tulips.
wow bert thats a bummer and you know one of them there aphids is going to make the trip!! :(
Hmm.....maybe not....they are spraying on a weekly or 10 day cycle. If you know how little these creatures are and the healthy ones are 200 yards. If you line up these aphids, you may have 25 in an inch. 200 yards is 7200 inches x 25 aphids is a total of 180,000 aphids. You put 180,000 people in a row and you have 3 per yard, then you have a row of 60,000 yards or 34 miles. Then you do not know where they are planted, so you would have a circle of 34 miles from this plot....what is the chance?
On the other hand, I think all of us have had a tulip in a regular variety that had streaks in them. Growers in Holland do check the fields for these.
So I guess you ought to feel lucky to have one of these in your garden.....it was touched by a smart or lucky aphid and you got it.
Hmm now I learned much more about Tulips. Thanks all for reply.
Farmer,
One site where you can learn possibly MORE than you ever wanted to know about bulbs is http://www.oldhousegardens.com I think they are one of the sacred 30 and I've found their site to be very informative just to read.
Carrie PS I don't do any of that refrigerating stuff, but up here it is cold enough in my vestibule!