Bulbs: What new bulbs are you planting and where did you get them?, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Hey Neal. I was looking on Colorblends. I was tempted, but I have always blended my own, and as I learned more about bloom times, I would mix and match. I love the way White Trumphinator, with it's strong stems, towers over almost everything else without dominating.

I find that tulips can last many, many years if you dig them up, throw them in the back of your garage and replant them. The species and near species work the best, but doubles and lilyflowering work well too. So do single lates. The multiflowering tulips tend to start breaking into single bulbs, but I would then put them in my peony beds or around my roses. The species turkestanica, which I was originally given six of as a gift with a McClure and Zimmerman order, morphed into 25 tulips. I can actually leave it in the ground and get that effect. If you dig around you find that it forms little strands which are connected to new bulbs.

By digging and storing (so easy) you multiply your effects in the garden. I ended up with hundreds upon hundreds of tulips, while only buying perhaps a dozen a year.

Oh, found pictures. Those multiflowering tulips I showed you? Here they are several years later, often as singles, in the peony beds at my former home. While you are waiting for the tulips, you get a free treat! These are the bulbs I showed you before - but this is the batch from two or three years ago.

Some people have told me that it's too much work to dog and store. But heck, they dig and toss. Since they are going to dig them any way, it is pretty easy to put them on any flat surface and let them dry out, and create another kind of display with them. I have these two bulbs from last year's planting at my new home. They are dried out in the garage. I am about to plant and enjoy them again. Like old friends.