Tulip and Hyacinth Bulbs

I was wondering if someone could offer me some advice on when to plant these. I haven't ever grown these, but they are beautiful and would love to have some come up in the spring for me. I am in zone 8b. Can someone offer some planting advice for me? I was browsing a Johnny's Seeds catalog last night and saw many beautiful bulbs. Are there other sources that I should consider for good quality bulbs?

I have no idea if you can plant those spring bulbs in TX. Anyway, there are a few sources for quality bulbs listed in Garden Watchdog on this site. The one that I used and LOVED it is www.whiteflowerfarm.com. They do provide quality bulbs.

Good Luck!

http://www.vanengelen.com/plantinginstr.html


This link is to another quality bulb seller, it's planting instructions include your zone. Good reading until someone comes along with better advice from your area...

Hi, ms_merae--try Easy to Grow Bulbs in Fallbrook, California, too. They specialize is bulbs for the South West.

http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=9

Also, I think Scheepers/Van Engelen has a list of bulbs for Southern Gardens.

Also, you might want to check in on the Texas Gardening thread. We have a few avid bulb gardeners in Texas and they can give you excellent advice, I'm sure!

Then, lastly, be sure to let us know what you bought and planted and show us pics please!

Good luck. t.

Thank you all for your wonderful links and references. I will certainly check them out and get into some good "bulb reading."

tabasco - I love looking at pics too, so I will be sure to share when I have some to show.

Asunee--your pic is just beautiful! I love Chicago and I love those bulbs you have planted there.

Hi I'm in Arlington, TX
Tulips are annuals for us, Hyacinths may come back but they don't look well, so best to presume they are annuals.

I must confess, that I'm a tulip and bulbaholic.

here's what I suggest you do this first year. Go to Sam's or Costco and buy some. I have a Sam's membership and you can get 30 hyacinths or 70-100 tulips for about $14-$15. The investment isn't too big and no shipping cost.

Put them all in the fridge for at least 10 weeks. Start planting between Christmas and New Years, but you can plant until mid January. They like cold, and January is our coldest month....usually.

Plant them shallowly, only about an inch of soil on top, but really dig the soil up so the roots have a place to go. Make sure that you water them weekly if it doesn't rain. That's really important if you put them in pots.

If you get wonderful results you may want to plant more and more and more.

Oh, and give the freesias a try, they might come back for you and their fragrance is heavenly!

let me know if you have any questions.

oh, why these stores? Because they store their bulbs in an air conditioned store not outside in the heat with the plants. HD and Lowes uses the same bulb distributor, but I've had the best results from Sam's so I assume it's due to the cooler storeage. Think of it this way, heat tells the tulip to break dormancy, cold to go back. Outside in the garden center it will vary widely from day to night here so the poor tulip gets confused.

good luck
cynthia

Most tulips are going to need more of a chill period than central TX winters provide in order to produce flowers. loveshercowdog has some good advice about chilling your bulbs in a refrigerator before planting. Just make sure you don't store any fruits such as apples in the fridge - ripening fruits emit ethylene gas which prevents the flower buds of bulbs from developing.

If you're set tulips, try some of the Tulipa clusiana varieties that don't need cold winters. 'Tubergen's Gem', 'Cynthia', 'Tinka', 'Lady Jane', etc grow well here in Raleigh (7b/8a). If you'd consider narcissus, the jonquilla and tazetta types do well in warm climates.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/626430/

That link is to a bulb co-op here at dave's that was started by a woman in Texas specifically for bulbs that would naturalize in the south. The co-op is closed, but you might get ideas for bulbs that would work there. They have the Tulipa clusiana TomH referred to

loveshercowdog -- Thanks a bunch for your reply. I have seen those boxes at Sam's and will pick a box up. I am glad to hear your feedback on them because if you woudn't have suggested it, I wouldn't have bought them. I purchased caladium bulbs one year from them and did not have much success with them. However, I will give these a try. Also, I will be following your advice and refrigerating them. We have a spare fridge in our garage, so I can store them in there where I won't have to worry about gases from other produce. I do appreciate the tip! I love the freesia scent you can buy for candles, soaps and lotions, so I think I will try some freesia also. This is going to be fun!!!

Tom - I am not set on Tulips, I just think that they are beautiful. I think I have gotten the bug because now my Hyacinth and Tulip idea has now grown to many, many more bulbs with the help of my DG friends. :-) A wonderful gardener in Houston has pointed me towards some Southern bulbs that look beautiful and that I really want to try also. I will look into the narcissus also.

claypa - I haven't had a chance to look into the coop for ideas, but will do so this weekend. Thank you for referencing the link .

You can also force both tulips and hyancinths indoors if they don't work out in your climate.

I'm so glad you're going to give them a try.

I checked them out in the past and many of the daffs that Sam's offers are good naturalizers. You'll probably find them on the lists of southern gardeners.

Ice Follies, Ice King, Tahiti, Dutch Master, Tete et Tete, Jetfire are all at Sam's, I did deeply and plant the daffs about 8 inches deep. Chop up the soild under them and if you're planting into heavy clay add some peat to protect them from the clay. Cover and water. Then, you can plant you tulips on top!

caution: I am a bulbaholic and may unintentionally enable others with these inclinations down the garden path with me.

BTW I have had cluisana cynthia return for two years. There is an orange type species tulip at sam's but I don't know that variety and didn't get any.
cynthia

this might just inspire you

Ooops, I didn't realize until after I sent it that the hyacinths had passed their prime.

Hi ms_merae,

I live in Ft Worth which is next door to Arlington, TX. I agree with loveshercowdog about tulips. I have had however good luck with both daffodils and hyacinths. I chose a different route though and plant my hyacinths deep, in a raised bed (10" high) filled with loam soil - and they have done pretty well for me. I have had one patch come back for four years running now. Our standard soil in this part of Texas is so heavy, solid and poor draining that it is inhospitable for most bulbs - but if you take some steps to improve conditions not only do many bulbs grow well here but even perennialize well. I agree about Easy to Grow Bulbs - good site. Most daffs do well here in N. Central Texas as well....a great source for daffodils is Old House Gardens, one of my favorites, but they can be expensive:

www.oldhousegardens.com

OHG has a wide selection of narcissus which do well in southern conditions. The thing I like about them is that they get very specific about zones and conditions in which bulbs do well - trust me - zone "8b" means many different things and really only tells you how cold a place gets.

Narcissus "Carlton", "Ice Follies", "Gigantic Star" and all Jonquilla daffs do well here. I was told "Marieke" was a more northern daffodil but I have a large patch which has come back and has done very well. I have some Tazettas but find our winters are sometimes too cold for them and they bloom early and look ratty - but in Austin you're a little warmer. I find the blue and white varieties of hyacinths are the best perennializers for me.

Good luck - buy a few varieties and experiment and see how you do! BTW the blue hyacinths in the below pic were planted in the fall of 2002 - ordered from Tulipworld - and I think they look pretty good for their 4th spring!

One thing to remember is that most spring-flowering bulbs like to be kept DRY during summer. Many of us run sprinkler systems in the summer here and moist or soggy soil means death to most bulbs. I don't think the climate here is so much the prtoblem as the soil and drainage/watering conditions. I find the bulbs that get the least water and where water does not stand do the best. And I no longer precool hyacinth bulbs - I fould through experimenting they do just fine (if planted deeply) without precooling. Tulips are another story however and I do refrigerate them. I did find out from Scott Kunst at OHG that hyacinths root at warmer temperaures than tulips so the two bulbs are not really in the same class as most bulb sources like to lump them. This is probably why hyacinths perform better here but again avoid excessive moisture.

This message was edited Sep 15, 2006 10:45 PM

The tulips are annuals in this pic - everything else comes back - and yes that is a peony with buds that later bloomed!

Here are some "Gigantic Stars" - known to do well in the south.....you can get them at Brent and Becky

Some hyacinths

I'll try some hyacinths deeper this year. I have a patch that have returned for 2 years that are on the edge of my yard near the street. Last spring, they were not very big and I assume that was the unusually dry weather and the unusually dry location.
thanks for the depth tip
cynthia

Then of course to mask the hyacinth foliage as it starts to decay, I have Narc. "Tahiti" and "Sir Winston Churchill" along with some other daffs and Dutch Iris that bloom at the same time for me in April.

Thanks Cynthia - let us know how they do and if your success is better!

I'm in Raleigh which tends to be a colder/wetter 7b than Texas. It is tough on tulips though ... in my experience the Darwin hybrids will return for a few years and the Clusiana types are perennials. The others, not so much. In your area I'd definitely recommend pre-chilling for any of the non-species tulips and be prepared to treat them as annuals. Hyacinths are also perennials here in NC though after the first year the flower spikes are not as large or dense. Actually I prefer the "Festival" multi-stemmed hyacinths, which have a less stiff/formal appearance.

My parents live in Pensacola, FL (zone 8b I think) and my recommendations for warm climates are based on what works there. The jonquilla and tazetta type narcissus have done well. 'Avalanche' aka '17 Sisters' is a good perennial tazetta that is readily available. For large daffodils 'Giant Star' is definitely a winner. It's come back and bloomed reliably. SteveFtWorth has some good recommendations for your area since he's close by. As for hyacinths... at my parents', they tend to decline after the first year. I think it's not quite cold enough for them to be really happy.

Tom,

Good points, though from what I've read and seen, hyacinths tend to be looser with fewer florets in successive years pretty much everywhere. I am from Illinois and the same was the case up there though of course they did return, and tulips up there did far better than they do here. I might get a 10% return on my tulips and the Single Lates do the best for me...though I get at least a 90% + return on daffs and hyacinths (actualy daffs multiplying quite a bit) in my raised beds. I don't think hyacinths require as much cold as tulips do, though they do need some, but both tulips and hyacinths are more sensitive to moisture than daffodils are. We get cold nights here in winter but daytime temps warm up more than yours do, which would explain the advantages of deep planting for fewer temperature fluctuations on the bulbs. I have had several groups of hyacinths start to divide and multiply in my drier areas where I dont water much - check out the pic below:

I did plant tulip bakeri "Lilac Wonder" and it perennialized well for me here.....but like you said species tulips are better adapted to southern conditions.

SteveFtWorth - Thank you for all of your pictures and advice. You and loveshercowdog have wonderful gardens and pictures to share. I appreciate your comments and advice. I am making purchases online today and will certainly be referencing this thread for advice when planting.

Saw this in the Heirlooms forum http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/623970/