Two Tulips

by Diana Greenwood Mead

Welcome to our gardening feature where Diana Greenwood Mead, our gardening expert answers your questions every week.

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This week we have 2 queries about Tulips for Diana, firstly Felicia Miller writes:

Hello Diana!
I am getting married May 17, 2008 in Central PA. Tulips are my favorite flower and I would love to give pots of blooming tulips to my guests. I purchased late spring blooming tulip bulbs and have them 'wintering' in a refrigerator. When should I pot them to give me the best chance for May blooms? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,
Felicia

Congratulations Felicia and what a lovely idea for your wedding!
The best time to take those tulips out of refrigeration would be right now ...
If you plant them individually with some potting compost and preferably keep them somewhere warm and sunny they should have just the right amount of time to come into bloom for your special day.
If you are keeping them indoors try and give them lots of light and if they are being stored outside make sure it’s a very sheltered spot – I hope they’ll all be flowering on the big day!

Secondly Noreen Knarich writes to Diana:
I received a gift of tulip bulbs in glass vase. The directions say to keep the water level above the bulb line. Flowers have developed and now died – my question is do I keep bulbs in water or transplant out doors? One of the bulbs has since rotted in the water. Will they automatically re-grow in the water filled vase year after year?

I think when tulips in a water filled vase are sold the producers are really thinking of them as a longer lasting cut flower to be discarded once flowering is at an end - in England Spring Hyacinths are sold in the same way.
However, if you want to keep them to flower again next year you will have to put them into pots with some good quality potting compost and give them an occasional dose of a general purpose fertilizer to encourage them to grow.
Growing and flowering in water, they will have used up all the food reserves that were stored in their bulbs and so they will need to re-build during this year.
There is a twist in this tale – if your tulips are simple, single flowered, single coloured ones, they are probably 'species' tulips which will flower year after year, but if they are large flamboyant creatures with frilly petals and complex striped and broken colors – they may have been special 'cultivars' which are not expected to last more than one season.
If you have the room and the patience plant them in pots and see what comes up next year!

Happy horticulture to you both!
Diana

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