Your tulips will thrive for years to come if you plant the bulbs with expertise. Do you still have questions about professional cultivation? Then delve into a compact and informative overview that highlights all relevant aspects.
How do you plant tulip bulbs correctly?
Tulip bulbs are planted in autumn in well-drained, humus-rich soil in a sunny location. The planting depth is 15-20 cm in normal soil and up to 30 cm in sandy soil. The distance between the bulbs should be 15 cm.
How can I prefer tulip bulbs?
So that your tulips start the flowering period with a vital growth lead, you can plant the tulip bulbs on the windowsill. This method is also recommended if your garden is infested with voles. To do this, fill old plastic pots halfway up with peat-free potting soil in mid-January. Place the bulbs on top at a distance of 15 cm and fill with substrate up to 20-25 cm.
In a frost-free, bright location, keep the soil slightly moist. Within a few weeks the first leaves emerge from the substrate. When the tulips boast their first flower buds, place the flowers and their pots in the bed.
Where do tulips grow?
The vast majority of tulip varieties prefer a sunny, warm and wind-protected location. This applies explicitly to the elegant noble tulips, which stretch up to 70 cm towards the sky. So that you can enjoy colorful tulip blossoms in semi-shady locations, plant the robust wild varieties here. Thanks to their stable stems and low height, Tulipa fosteriana and colleagues have no objection to a little wind.
When is planting time for tulip bulbs?
Autumn is the time to plant tulip bulbs. Impatient hobby gardeners start planting as soon as the first leaves fall. This haste is by no means an advantage for the signs of spring. In fact, the ideal time window only opens when the ground has already cooled down. Wait until temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius to plant the bulbs.
Do tulips thrive in any soil?
Regardless of a wide range of location, tulips do not accept every soil condition. To get the most out of the spring beauties, you should plant the tulip bulbs in this soil:
- Humoser, deep, loose soil
- Fresh, moist and with good water drainage
- Neutral to alkaline pH value greater than 7
If the soil at the chosen location does not meet ideal conditions, soil additives will solve the problem. You can enrich clay soil with sand, while sandy-dry substrates can be improved with compost or bark humus.
What should you pay attention to when planting?
In addition to the site conditions and soil conditions, the planting depth plays a significant role if you want to plant tulip bulbs correctly. This is how it works:
- From mid/end of October, dig small planting pits at a distance of 15 cm in a sunny location
- In normal garden soil the planting depth is 15-20 cm, in sandy soil up to 30 cm
- Put a tulip bulb in each hole with the tip pointing towards the sky
- Alternatively, plant the tulip bulbs in small tuffs, 1-2 cm apart
Press the soil firmly with your hands and water generously. A layer of compost already sets the stage for an adequate supply of nutrients in spring.
How long does the flowering period last?
The centuries-long cultivation of tulip bulbs has resulted in a breathtaking diversity of more than 4,000 varieties. As a positive consequence, varieties with different flowering times have emerged. When combined correctly, the flowering period in your garden extends over many months. Early varieties such as Fosteriana and Kaufmanniana tulips bloom from March to April. Medium varieties, such as Triumph and Darwin tulips, show off from April to May. The late beauties, such as parrot and peony tulips, delight us with their splendor of color from May to June.
What methods of propagating tulips are there?
There are two methods of propagation available to you when growing tulips: vegetative breeding using breeding bulbs and generative propagation by sowing seeds. In hobby gardening, the use of breeding onions dominates due to the quick process. To do this, pull the mother bulbs out of the ground in August/September in order to separate the daughter bulbs with a sharp knife. Then stick the bulbs back into the ground somewhere else.
On the other hand, sowing seeds requires a lot of patience. To do this, leave the ovaries on the tulip blossom after flowering. The ripe seeds can be harvested two months later. After stratification (cold treatment), sow the seeds. Of course, it is not uncommon for it to take 5 years or more before the first flowering occurs.
Tip
It was tulip bulbs that created the first speculative bubble in history at the beginning of the 17th century. Until 1637, tulip mania was rampant in the Netherlands, during which astronomical sums were paid for a single tulip bulb. Then the inevitable stock market crash occurred, which brought the entire economy to a standstill for years. The objects of desire have now changed, but the system has not.