Hello, I need a bit of advice if you will. A couple years ago I planted 10-12 tulips in a row in my back yard in front of the garden picket fence. Bad idea. They were not in the direct sunlight enough to be happy. Yesterday I dug them up, and there were 2-4 new bulbs with each old bulb, but none of those ever came up this year! I am thinking that I need to replant them in a full sunlight location. Here is my question: should I put these bulbs in the refrigerator until fall? Seems like I read somewhere that tulips prefer a stratification through the summer months? Or, should I go ahead and plant them in their new location while they are fresh?
tulip help, please
While I ran into someone at Lowes up here who says she grows tulips successfully by keeping them shallow, I have never had any luck beyond a weak, inconsistent showing the second year. There would be offsets, but it seems that would even do more to weaken the bulbs. I was told years ago, when we first moved to GA that temps are not cold enough, long enough, to give tulips the rest they need and that the long season heat weakens the bulbs. Perhaps there are others with different experiences, or specific varieties that are better for here than others.
good morning hmstyl,
here's my 2-cents worth. In Holland we never ever dig up tulips of course cause they're happy enough. Once in a while you add more because some have rotted away. They come back larger there too. Here however is a very different story. They don't come back or if they do they're really small or just leaves. Digging up after leaves have died back is good idea. carefully! any little damage with tools kills the bulb. Put them in cool dry spot on newspaper or paper towel, when they get little drier you can carefully brush them off, the little ones you can take off too, put them in dark cool place in peatmoss and have them "hibernate" through the summer. This is what I will do this year, then about 4-6 weeks before planting I will put them in paper bag in fridge. Now I will put them in the basement fridge which gets opened rarely (darkness is good).
This is only my 2nd year in Georgia so I could be terribly wrong, there a bunch of master gardeners in this forum if they have other suggestions I will be more than happy to hear it.
Good luck, Tuliplady
What I have heard about tulips in GA (south in general) is the heat comes on too quick for the foliage to stay on after blooming, thereby providing more food for the bulb for the next year. My own experience is instead of putting them in more sun in GA, put them in a spot where they will get shade after the trees leaf out. I've had a few tulips that always came up and bloomed but they were in a semi-shady area but most tulips don't do well for more than 2 seasons. Generally treat tulips as annuals (or two seasons) in GA.
Yes, exactly what I learned. It's a two-fold problem. Not only are there not enough hours at low enough temperatures, but the rapid onset of high temperatures, relative to what this plant needs to thrive, exhaust the bulb. So, I learned that tulips need a long, cool Spring as well as a cold rest in Winter.
I grew them for several years after we first moved here and then, even when the "growers assortments" were cheap, I got tired of planting disposable plants that were so short lived. At least summer annuals last a whole season or more (and you can often save seed or cuttings).
Laurel
Wow - that is a lot of good information. I guess the bottom line is this really isn't a good zone for tulips - no matter what we do. I think I will put up the bulbs I already have and re-plant them in the fall, but I don't think I will be spending any more money on tulips.
Thank you all so much for your help.
Cindy
If DH didn't love them so much, I wouldn't waste my time and money on them. They are beautiful, though, and they areblooming when not much else in my garden is.