Tulips in LA?

I’ve always wanted to plant a full bed of tulips. It would be nice to have Darwin types as well as Species types (Saxatellis). The challenge is that I'm in zone 10. More specifically I'm within a half mile from the coast in Los Angeles. So far, the larger Tulip mail order sites I looked into don’t have much choice (and don’t sell pre-chilled).

Does anybody know a good source to get Tulip bulbs for my area? I've tried buying bulbs before and storing in the refrigerator for a couple of months but have had difficulty with this (ripening fruit I think), so I prefer buying pre-chilled bulbs.

Thanks

Brent and Becky is a large site with nice bulbs that offers a complete selection of pre-cooled bulbs:

http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/precooledbulbs.php

I have used them before. There are likely others but this site has a wide variety of pre-cooled bulbs to choose from. Good luck!

Steve

Wow! I'm glad I found this thread. I live in Pasadena, a little more weather than you get, but I just put my bulbs in the fridge for two weeks and had great success. I just planted a mix of about 300 tulips but I want more. I'll look into Brent and Beckys. 300 bulbs is too much for any fridge! - Karen

easy to grow bulbs sometimes has species tulips which are supposed to be for southern gardens.

I agree on Easy to Grow....I have used them and their bulb quality is excellent. Have never bought tulips from them though - will have to check those out. I am in one of those "borderline" areas and thankfully tulips are about the only major bulbs I need to refrigerate to do well.

On standard tulips, I have found the Single Late varieties perform best for me, though none of them tend to return really well. Surprisingly I planted a patch of about 20 Emperor tulips a few years ago in an area where I never watered, and 16 of them returned 2nd year and about half 3rd year....not too bad for Texas!

Like2Grow...I'm in Long Beach and about 5 blocks from the water. I have grown tulips successfully here, but find they get taller and bloom better when planted in an Eastern or Northern exposure. The flowers also last longer. Direct sun (West or South) causes them to bloom too soon, on short stubby plants. I learned this the hard way ! (Just my experience, for where I am...)

You do need to chill them for 6 to 8 weeks, and do need to lift them when the foliage dies back, as they won't rebloom here without pre-chilling. Sandy, well draining soil is a must, or they'll rot.

I generally just get mine from HD, Lowes or local nurseries...I've never mail ordered them.

Also, don't store apples in your fridge if you have tulip bulbs in there. The cyanide in the apple seeds can damage the bulbs.

how does that damage them? i have read that but didn't really know what it did to them. will they just not bloom or do they die?

I thought it was the ethylene gas that apples produce. It helps ripen fruit, but damages flower bulbs.

In my opinion the bulbs from reputable online sellers like Van Engelen or Brent & Becky have much larger, healthier bulbs than anything you'll find at Home Depot or Wal-Mart. Makes an enormous difference come bloom time...trust me. Of course some online sellers offer terrible bulbs and the Garden Watchdog guide on DG is a good indicator of which ones to use and which not to use.

I agree about Van Engelen's...I've bought other bulbs from them in the past and they were excellent. Haven't tried B and B's yet.

The big issue with HD bulbs is that they never seem to be the colors the pkg. says they are !

Hi there Like2Grow, and a big welcome to DG!!!

How did I miss welcoming you to DG when you signed up? I always watch the new subscriptions to see who has joined in my area. I was raised in El Segundo and my father still lives there. I visit him every Wednesday. He lives on Maryland St. and used to own an Italian restaurant on Grand Ave.

On to the bulb question...lol
I have a garden friend here in Huntington Beach who grows lovely Tulips every year. She buys them at Cosco, puts them in the fridge for 6 weeks and plants them in a whiskey barrel. The barrel is planted with potting soil, so it is nice and loose. Her tulips this past spring were at least 18-24 in. tall and gorgeous.
The soil in El Segundo is very sandy, so the bulbs should do nicely in your ground.

I hope we have answered your question. :-)
Donna

All,

Thanks for the great advice. I did try Brent and Beckys and found a few I liked. Also found the site www.willowcreekgardens.com and talked to Cathleen there. Turns out they are actually south of me in Oceanside, CA. When I explained my desire for prechilled they offered to do just that and mail them at any future date I wanted. Lots of good selection there so I ordered about 70 bulbs to be delivered at the end of December.

JasperDale, thanks for the hint on location. I was thinking about planning them in a raised planter with a great view from the kitchen but it gets very strong sun. So I’ll find a cooler spot. Do they still need full sun? What about under a tree that blocks the mid day sun but allows late afternoon sun? I’ve been kind of suspicious of the HD tulip bulbs: couldn’t determine from the label whether they needed to be chilled or not. Sounds like you found they need to be chilled. Perhaps I’ll give them a try; I’d use them as a supplement and filler. After removing from the ground, where do you store your bulbs until the following Fall?

Thanks again.

and just so you know............willowcreek and easy to grow have the same parent company and if you look at both their sites online they look almost identical.

The bulbs at HD, Lowes or any nursery here require chilling. To my knowledge, no one here sells them pre-chilled. I've always heard they need to be planted the same day you take them out of the refrigerator, so that's how I've done it.

I would think YES...under a tree that blocks mid-day sun, but allows late afternoon sun would be good. They would also benefit from using bone meal when you plant them.

When the foliage yellows and starts to turn brown, I remove them from the soil (or pots) clean them off, cut off the leaves, (by this time, they usually just fall off anyway...) and then put them in open egg cartons to dry out. Usually two or three days. Then I dust them with sulphur dust and store them in the egg cartons in the garage or any dark , DRY place until next planting time. (I close the lid on the egg carton, some people don't)

My experience has been that after they bloom, the foliage only lasts about 2 weeks, 3 at the most...but you have to leave the foliage and allow it to die off on it's own...this nourishes the bulb for the following season, and is a good rule of thumb for pretty much all bulbs.

In So. Cal., where you and I are, we can grow Daffodils, Dutch Iris, Tritonia, Freesia, Glads, and other bulbs, and leave them in the ground without having to lift them like Tulips...providing you have well draining soil. These don't meed chilling.

My biggest problem is that I forget where they are after they die back !

I love tulips also. Someone told me that you have to replace them every two years or so. Is this correct? I thought once you had the bulb in the ground, you were good for many, many years. Spring of 2006 mine were gorgeous. (I had planted them in the previous fall.) This past spring they were not, but we had screwy weather. Friend said gotta replant every two years.
True or false.
Judy

That could well be true. I've never gotten a third year out of mine. Maybe it has to do with climate and how cold it does or doesn't get. Lifting and storing may shorten their lifespan, for all I know...

Like2Grow...try planting your tulips with a low, bulb covering annual, like Pansy or Viola..they'll keep blooming long after the tulips are finshed, and you won't have a big bare space.

JasperDale,
Lifting and whating??? I never have brought in tulip bulbs. Am I supposed to?? I don't do lifting and storing well.

storing...leaving them out of the soil until it's time to plant them again. We have to do that here...ourt winters aren't cold enough for them to "think" they've been through a winter chill...hence our having to refirgerate them. If we leave them in the ground (at least where I am) they just get leaves the following year, no flowers.

Plus, they will rot in our soil if we don't lift them. In the mountain communities here, they can stay in the ground and do fine.

You must get enough winter cold that you don't need to lift them every year.

I grow tulips every year. Like Donna's friend, I buy the big pack at Costco and chill them, and they are gorgeous. They get planted in a south facing location with a bit of dappled shade. After they bloom I throw them out. I've never had any luck with trying to get them to bloom a second year.

floweringchild:

Tulips like it dry when they are sleeping. In many areas, the summers are too wet for tulips and the bulbs don't do well. This may be why they don't last for your friend.

I find my summers are usually dry enough as long as I don't put the tulips in a bed with something that I'm going to be watering during the summer.

Remember, though, I am not an expert...

Andy

Andy,
THAT could be my problem. I have them very near my daylilies which I water a lot. Ugh...now I know.

Jasperdale,
I just don't like to bring anything in. One year I boought this beautiful amaryllis. planted in, left it in ground over winter. It came up but never bloomed the following season. Two years later it still was alive. So, in the fall I decided to do the honorable thing by it and lift and store. There were about 10 new bulbs. I followed directions and stored them dry. Then I never thought another thought about them until two years later. THey about crumbled in my hands. I love cannas, but in this area people bring them in. I won't get any. I am so busy with my daylilies, I don't have the time to lift and store and remember...lol. I hate the thought and planting more tulips this fall, but I guess I will. I think since they only last one spring, I will get the very unusual that I have seen in catalogs..lol.

Judy

JasperDale,
The Pansy or Viola is a great idea. I’ll give lifting and storing a try. It seems easy to do. It’s the refrigeration next year that will be my biggest challenge; seems we always have some sort of fruit in the frig.

I can’t hardly wait.

Hey guys and galls, good morning.
Never really checked this forum (don't know why).... I'm from Holland and have been living in Georgia (Atlanta area) for about 1 year now. I just got myself couple bags of bulbs, tulips and daffodils only. Since I'm about to finish my landscaping project on front yard (approx. 3000 sq.ft) I'd love to have spring flowers for next year. Any one of you think the pre-cooling and the egg-container techniqe (JasperDale) would work here too? In that case I'd better put them in fridge, right? In bags (paper or plastic) , in crisper or regular shelf???? Thanks for advise.
Coby

Somehow, advising someone from Holland on growing tulips seems odd to me ! LOL

Definitely paper bags...not plastic. The paper bags will "breathe" and lessen the chances of mold growing on the bulbs. I've put them in the crisper drawer and on the regular shelves and had the same results. They're probably less apt to get damaged in the crisper drawer though...no bottles, or pots and pans or bowls banging into them.

If the bulbs are in those mesh type plastic bags, that's ok.