what will happen if I don't precool the tulips?

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youngman Beverly Hills, CA Sep 15, 2008

I read it online that I need to precool the tulip bulbs before i plant them, i wonder what will happen if i just plant them in the soil now?

second, when will tulip bulbs start to grow if I plant them now?

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kitten0115 La Vergne, TN Sep 15, 2008

Youngman, go ahead and plant them now. Over the winter they will chill and get ready for spraing. The chilling allows them to go dormant and conserve their energy so you get nice full blooms. Now is the time you start to plant all spring bulbs so don't worry about them growing up, they will put their energy into growing a root system.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Sep 15, 2008

Unfortunately in warmer winter areas they don't typically get enough chill if you just plant them in the ground, so I suspect yours will need to be prechilled to guarantee good results. If you plant them and they don't get enough chill, then they won't bloom well. I think there are some bulb places that will ship pre-chilled tulips for people in warmer zones so if you don't want to do it yourself you might look into getting your bulbs from one of those places.

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JasperDale Long Beach, CA(Zone 10a) Sep 15, 2008

Unless you chill the bulbs for 6 to 8 weeks, your tulip bulbs will most likely not bloom because we don't get cold enough here. At best, you'll get a lot of foliage and miniscule, deformed looking flowers.

Put the bulbs in paper bags in your crisper drawer of your refrigerator for about 2 months, but don't store apples in the fridge when the bulbs are in there. Apple seeds have traces of cyanide in them which will damage the ovary of the bulb and lessen the chances of it blooming.

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dmac085 Greensboro, NC(Zone 7a) Sep 16, 2008

Some sellers offer a selection of prechilled bulbs so you don't have to mess with it. I'm going to try prechilling this year too. I'm in zone 7 but for the past several winters the temps have been fairly mild with no consistant length of cold weather so the tulips I planted just leafed out but only one variety flowered. Since most of tulips aren't reliable rebloomers--I sort of threw my money away. I'm hoping to have better luck this year.

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youngman Beverly Hills, CA Sep 18, 2008

ok, I am going to chill my bulbs now. I am curious, if I plant them now, will they actually grow leaves?

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JasperDale Long Beach, CA(Zone 10a) Sep 18, 2008

It's way too early to plant them now. Wait at least until December.

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