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Have you ever seen a swath of brightly colored tulips bobbing in the spring breeze? Isn’t it the loveliest sight? For me, tulips are the essence of spring. It is as if their arrival cuts the cord from our dark and dreary days of winter and urges us to take a deep breath…spring is finally here!
For many gardeners, tulips are a standard addition to their spring beds. For some, however, tulips may seem a bit intimidating, especially if you have not had good luck with them or have not tried planting them before.
Here are five tips to boost your confidence and guarantee beautiful tulips next spring. Read on for my bonus tip at the end!
1) Be picky about your bulbs. The first thing you want to consider when choosing tulip bulbs is their ability to thrive in your USDA hardiness or growing zone. Choose only bulbs that are recommended for your zone (if you don’t know your growing zone, click here). This will ensure your bulbs can manage your climate.
Choose what time of spring you would like your tulips to bloom and select your bulbs on their recorded bloom time. Traditionally “Early” tulips tend to bloom in March, “Mid-Spring” tulips peak in April, and “Late” tulips prefer to bloom in May. This is all variable, of course, due to the weather conditions and average temperatures in your climate. In areas with mild winters, you may have more success if you choose the late blooming varieties as they do not require as many cool days to establish their blooms.
Many problems with tulip growth evolve from simply planting poor or damaged bulbs. Stressed bulbs do not thrive in the garden and can keep your tulips from performing well. When purchasing your bulbs, look for large, firm bulbs that are 12 cm or larger in diameter. The bulbs should have no soft or squishy spots and are free of mold and disease. Do not plant sick-looking bulbs!
As most commercial tulip bulbs come from Dutch growers, it is highly recommended that you buy your bulbs directly from companies in the Netherlands that specialize in bulb production. We recommend this company and this company. There are many reasons why we recommended buying straight from the source, but simply put, it ensures you get the freshest, healthiest bulbs. Avoid online retail companies that sell every kind of plant imaginable and offer them at super-low prices. Often these bulbs are riddled with diseases that will negatively impact your soil health.
2) Plant your bulbs in the right spot Tulips do best in areas with 4 to 6 hours or more of sunlight. They will not do well in full shade and may easily dry out in full, extreme sun.
Choose a site that protects from damaging winds. Extreme wind will dry out your soil quickly and will stress your plants, creating issues like toppling over, weakened stems, and stunted growth.
Make sure your site has easy access to water. Tulips can be thirsty plants, so regular watering will keep them in great shape. Water the bulbs well at planting and water deeply once a week if you do not receive regular rain in your area. If your soil does not drain well, reduce watering to prevent bulb rot.
Most tulips can thrive in average soil. A natural soil that drains well is great, but a one-time dose of bulb fertilizer added to your soil at planting time is beneficial (follow the instructions on the label, please!). If your soil is heavy clay or mostly sand, you can improve the loam if you mix in organic matter like compost, decayed leaves, etc.
3) Plant at the right time
All tulips, despite their bloom time will need to be fall-planted. Here in Zone 7, we plant in November, but if your area is cooler, you might be able to plant in late September or early October. Check your bulb supplier’s site for specific planting times.
We plant in the fall because tulips need a cold period to initiate blooming. Another word for this is called “vernalization,” which basically means the plant requires a certain length of time to create the chemical reactions necessary to create a bloom. Without the proper number of low temperatures days, your bulbs may not bloom or will produce short stems.
Note: If you are worried that your bulbs will not get enough cooling hours to produce bloom, consider buying bulbs labeled as “pre-chilled” or “pre-cooled”. If you aren’t able to plant your bulbs at the proper time, place them in your fridge’s chiller drawer at around 42 degrees Fahrenheit for no longer than a week or two (be sure to remove all other food, especially fruit and onions from the drawer or the gases they put off will ruin your bulbs). DO NOT put your bulbs in the freezer! Plant the bulbs outside as soon as you can.
4) Pay attention to depth and spacing
Plant your bulbs at a depth of about six inches deep, or three times the bulb’s size (You can stack three on top of each other and measure the length if that helps). Bulbs planted too deeply may have stunted stems, and bulbs planted too shallow may topple over during the growth period.
If you are planting tulips for the landscape, space each bulb three inches to six inches apart. If you are planting tulips for the cut flower garden, dig a light trench and line the bulbs up as close as you can without touching each other. Cover with soil back to the original soil line and mulch with about two inches of leaves, straw, or finished compost.
Here is a great video tutorial on planting tulips by Longie.
5) Protect your bulbs One of the greatest struggles gardeners have with tulips is that they are a magnet for hungry animals during the winter. Rodents of all kinds love to dig them up and can wreak havoc very quickly.
Use wire to ward off rodents. In areas with heavy rodent pressure, bulb baskets may be a good investment, which fortify your bulbs with wire netting. On our farm, we built a raised bed with a wooden frame and lined it with wire mesh before we added the soil and planted. We then topped the mulched bed with more wire mesh and removed it with the bulbs sprouted. Once the bulbs grow stems, the animals do not seem as interested in them anymore. It seems to work well.
Deter deer with fencing. Our number one issue on the farm is hungry deer! The only way we can hold deer back from munching on our tulips is to plant them in areas with high fencing.
Bonus Tip! The most important thing I have learned about tulips is to treat them as annuals. There is so much conflicting advice on how to perennialize tulips, but for us in the south-central states, it is best simply to plant fresh, new bulbs each year, especially if you cut the stems to use as cut flowers.
With our highly variable weather, it is not guaranteed that bulbs left in the garden will grow again next year, and if they do, they may not bloom. Save yourself the worry and plant fresh bulbs each year to maximize your chances of success!
I hope you enjoyed these five tips for growing great tulips! I hope it encouraged you to try to plant tulip bulbs this fall. We would love to hear from you. If you have any questions about tulips and bulbs, leave a comment or email us at info@okcutflowerco.com. Thank you for choosing to join our family on this grand adventure, as we grow something beautiful, meaningful, and good. If we haven't met yet, we are Sara and Teddy Wilson and we own Oklahoma Cut Flower Company in Norman, Oklahoma. We are a micro-farm that grows specialty cut flowers to educate and inspire our local flower-loving community. We are members of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.
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