How to be successful with tulips?

I spent a very happy couple of hours last week with the Old House Gardens Catalog, and found all kinds of wonderful things I'd like to try, including some tulips, but they are all listed as no warmer than Zone 7. I know I've seen tulips here in the Portland area, so what can I do to make them happy? I would be planting them in very good, reasonably deep soil in an area that's shaded until mid-morning.

Most of my past gardening experience was in a chilly Zone 5A, so learning to garden here in Zone 8a is sort of like horticultural jet lag; it's taking me a while to catch on!

You can grow tulips here but they don't last very well for me if I leave them in the ground. They''ll be fine the first year, though. Basically, they don't really get enough cold. You can either treat them as annuals (which gets expensive if you like OHG's beauties.) or you can lift them and store them as OHG describes. Some of mine have done better than others, though. It may just take finding the right spots in your garden. You might have better luck than I do, as you're out a bit further, too.

Very surprisingly, I noticed that my large container of tulips (In fall 2005 I did one of those layered pots with daffs, tulips, etc-this was the second year for it) came back much better than many of my in-ground ones. It wasn't the quality of the tulips, either-these were cheapies! So, I'm thinking about experimenting with planting more in containers. I'm wondering if we're warm enough that the containers actually cool the bulbs more than the ground, and unlike elsewhere, it helps them. It seems like it's a risky proposition, but an interesting thought. It could've just been where I put the pot for the winter, though,too.

Thank you Susie!

I think it's worth experimenting; I'll plant some in the ground and leave some and lift others, and, given your experience, I'll try a few in containers, which will certainly expand my container horizon. Forest Grove is close enough to the Coast Range to be a little cooler than either Portland or the mid-Willamette valley, where I gardened when I first moved out here.

Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that Tulips prefer really well-drained soil. I have several types that have returned year after year. They have either been grown in big, deep pots, or are in a place where the soil drains fast. They receive no supplemental water at all - just whatever rain we get. I throw them some fertilizer yearly & enjoy the show.

I have learned, the hard way, to NOT plant tulips into the ground. The burrowing moles make freeways that the VOLES follow ...and it is the voles that have a grand appetite for tulip bulbs - even as they are blooming.

But if you really want to plant them in the ground, make a little hardware cloth (wire mesh) box for them. This mesh comes in 1/2" squares, and is not hard to bend. The bulbs are safe, & the foliage/roots grow through it. Eventually, they rust away, but are good for many years.
Bulb boxes can be purchased, too - about $16 per.
I make mine - way cheaper!

Good advice, Katye. I haven't yet tried that - wow - I haven't seen bulb boxes - egads.

LOL!!
You can buy them from White Flower Farms for your hoity-toity tulips at a mere $19 each. Theirs "fold neatly for storage". (huh? - we're supposed to dig them up, too?)

Mine are functional & I haveyet to hear from any burrowing creatures regarding the lack of artistic flourish.
Mine don't latch either - those little bulbs are prisoners: the whole point was to keep them from becoming dessert.

Dessert, now there's a thought. How would voles have tulips for dessert?

"Dinner this evening will be a deluxe native mushroom and garden grub pate, followed by fresh tulip compote with a side dressing of roots and served on a bed of organic fresh dandelion leaves".

Why, but of course! And all served up in, how did they put it in the catalog - hang on, gotta check for accuracy...
Oh yes -- "La Cage aux Fleurs".
aka: wire mesh bulb box.
I can just see it, the little Vole waiter with a proper linen towel draped just so over his left arm, the right arm aiding in the description with various flourishes...

LOL, and the tail flipping delicately to emphasize important points.

oohhh! snort! With his head tipped slightly to one side? Index finger pointed for emphasis?
I need to go to bed.
There is no help for me - I am a cartoon-head!

Whiskers twitching disapprovingly when the wrong choice is made....

Cartoon-head? And, what's wrong with that???? ;)

laughed and laughed. Lovely!

Whoops! I forgot the oh so necessary whisker twitching!
nothing wrong, except there is no help! but then, I don't want any, either....

I have found that planting them in pots is the only way to go. I cover the top of mine with chicken wire, squirrels like to dig in them if I don't! I put them in pots that are about 10-12 inches deep in good soil. That way the pots are easy to move when the foliage starts to look ugly. At that time I move them out of sight to my holding area (aka pat the bunny cage where no one else will see them :0) I re-pot them in the fall in new soil with compost mixed in, that gives me the opportunity to through out any rotten or tiny bulbs. Rachel

boy oh boy am I coming to realize just how lucky I am... other than a few bugs I have never had problems with "wild life". The only trouble with WILD life I have had is with my 4 sons but that is a different forum!!! No deer, no voles, no rabbits... my garden and I have lived a sheltered life.

I really would love to have some kind of a "round up" here in the Pacific Northwest but the problem is the HUGE variety of zones we have here. I grew up in Tri-Cities, WA and that is dessert. It's also colder than you guys closer to the coast...

Rachel,
I like your idea a lot. I may borrow it. That way I wouldn't have to worry about tulip breaking virus with my lilies either, and they'd be easy to toss if they stop performing well.

Pat, How was the wedding? As far as a roundup- you might be able to do something with the Rocky Mtn folks, too. We are all pretty scattered around out here....

The wedding went well. About 3 days before the wedding a friend of my sister's loaned me LOTS of decorations. I had plans to make the pew bows and she brought 20 pew bows that were READY. 3 BIG flower arrangements, 2 big swags of blue & 1 of white that I was able to combine to COVER the nasty looking arch that had been loaned to us. Her swags, along with lots of tulling she loaned me and we were set! I had made the corsages & bouts, center pieces, brides & bridemaid's bouquets so we were very blessed to get all that other stuff loaned to us.

My sister bought the bride a beautiful pale blue dress and I altered it. We had a tux loaned to us and it took me 3 tries to get it altered "right". Guess I never noticed my son had one arm longer than the other!!! I made his cummerband & tie out of the matching shawl cover the bride did not want to use. THAT made matching colors easy!!

I found a Snapper lawn mower for sale today, self-propelled, with bagger for $30!!! I'm so excited! My little electric mower did not have a bagger but it has more than paid for itself since I have been mowing the yard this whole summer with it. I bought it used for $50. I was afraid that trying to start a gas mower might hurt my shoulder. This one SEEMED to start easy so I'm hoping!!! It's been a "lean year" and the bargains I have found, help from my sister, the trades at DG have all made it much easier and less bleak than it would have been. Life is good!

Pat (Friends are the flowers in the garden of life!)

Pat,
Show us pictures of your handywork! Rachel

I don't have ANY of the pictures from the wedding yet. Our digital camera got taken out of the car at the last minute some how... but these are the flowers I brought down with me. The bridesmaid bouquets did not have ribbons on yet, this was just a "preview" so my new DIL could tell me if I was on the right track. The flower ring is not yet on the candle for the center piece.

OOPsss that is the picture she sent me to show me what she wanted! I don't know how to pick up picture I wanted to show you... oh well!! maybe tomorrow when I've had some sleep!

Ok, I'll try again...

Oh, that's so great that you had so many nice things loaned to you-talk about lightening the load stress-wise!

Hmm... in your "sample" photo, I've got that exact same "vase" myself, lol! Very sturdy glasses. Everything looks really nice.

Hey, congrats on the new mower, too


:)

Beautifully done! I love the addition of the pearls :0)

Forgive me if this has been mentioned. I'm in a hurry tonight, but I did want to add that I went to a Molbak's workshop here in Woodinville last spring that was about bulb planting. Turns out that there aren't that many varieties of tulips that you can successfully naturalize. Most of the fancy ones you buy these days peter out after a couple of years - that is if you can protect them fromt the squirrels and moles.

I recall thinking that it was quite a lucrative prospect for the tulip bulb producers. You have to keep buying again and again to get the same impact as the first year.

Kathy

This has been my understanding & experience, too. However, I have found that planting them in fast-draining soil & omitting supplemental water has been successful for some of them. Planting in pots is an easier way to deal with the water/dead foliage issue. Still, I can only expect about 3 - 4 years of rebloom. I tend to think of them in terms of a temporary bouquet in order to rationalize the cost. I really love tulips - they are my earliest memory of a flower. I was fascinated by tthe vivid colours of those my mother grew when I was about 3 yrs old.
These pictured below were planted 8 years ago in a pot; forgotten & overplanted with a Campanula(now a large clump). They have returned each year - so weird!

hmmm photo jumped ship.
Trying again:

message says it does not like the format...

This message was edited Sep 14, 2007 9:20 PM

It's a jpeg - don't know what the deal is. In any case it is a lily-flowered type called Queen of Sheeba.
Bright red with a yellow edge. I'll try once more.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2007 9:25 PM

Same tulip - different photo:

Ooo. ooo, ooo, I have to look for that one! I have a couple of large pots just waiting for something like that! Now have to learn how to modify my planting mixes to make them fast draining. I use water crystals in all my plantings now so nix that and maybe more perlite?

Katy - I had purchased mine at Van Engelen. they sell large quantities (50, 100, 250 etc..) at substantial discounts. They do have a retail company (johnscheepers.com) which sells in smaller lots, but I did not see 'Q of S' listed for this year.
When I googled it, Tulips.com does have them. (10 for 6.95). I have never ordered from them but they have only positive reviews from DG members. I am going to order from them this year - they have some very pretty ones & the shipping charges ought to be much less since they are a local compny up in northern Washington.

No polymers needed in the soil for tulips - they don't need any extra moisture, at least in western Washington. I stop any watering after they have bloomed & do nothing until fall.
I have used potting soil & mixed in sand or grit or even Cedar Grove compost (bagged) - it's pretty sandy! Rich soil with excellent drainage seems to work the best for the tulips. Bulbs tend to have different preferences depending on the country of origin.
Hope this helps!

Here is an yet to open Rembrandt - the colours don't come true with my camera - very intense & bright in person though.

Here's a better shot of the Rembrandts:

This is one of my favourite tulips: "Gavota" - I've had it for years.

Katye,
I have never seen Gavota before, I love it! I will have to find it! Rachel