The tulip is one of the world’s most beloved flowers. Any art lover visiting the world’s museums can see how tulips have influenced and inspired artists for centuries. Their shape is easily recognizable and the bounty of colors offers opportunities for any canvas or home decor.
This brightly colored jewel brightens our days in early spring. We truly look forward to seeing those blue-green leaves start to emerge as the Earth awakens from its winter sleep!
Tulips bulbs are sold as perennials for the flower garden, and some even make the promise of forming a handsome naturalized colony in your landscape. .
Plant in the Fall for Spring Bloom
Tulip bulbs are planted in the autumn before the ground freezes. By planting varieties with different bloom times, you can have tulips blooming from early to late spring. Some types are good for forcing into bloom indoors and most are excellent for cut flowers, too.
Tulip flowers are usually cup-shaped with three petals and three sepals. There’s a tulip for every setting, from small “species” tulips in naturalized woodland areas to larger tulips that fit formal garden plantings from beds to borders. The upright flowers may be single or double and vary in shape from simple cups, bowls, and goblets to more complex forms. Height ranges from 6 inches to 2 feet. One tulip grows on each stem, with two to six broad leaves per plant.
HOW TO GROW TULIP
Spring bulbs like tulips already have an embryo flower tucked away inside. This embryo is just waiting to begin growing. When choosing tulip bulbs, make sure they are fat and firm. Avoid any bulbs that are soft, flabby, moldy, or whose papery cover is missing.
You will want to purchase your tulip bulbs in late August or early September (late summer/early fall) but wait to plant them until mid-autumn. Sometimes, even early winter (December) works best if you live in mild winter areas.
Tulips are so eager to grow that if you plant them too soon, they’ll send their leaves up right away. This will only freeze them in the winter. For this reason, you should store tulip bulbs in paper bags, not plastic, while waiting to plant them, and keep them in a cool place.
Create a healthy soil
Like many garden flowers, tulips thrive in rich soil with good drainage. Planting tulips in heavy soil that have a high clay content often leads to rotting, as these soils remain wet during the spring thaw period. The best time to amend the soil is before planting. Dig compost, manure, and rotted leaves deeply into the soil. If your bulbs are already planted and you don’t want to disturb them, it’s never too late to improve the soil: Add a three to four-inch layer of compost on the surface of the garden bed, and let earthworms do the rest. Their tunneling action will help air circulation and improve soil tilth.
How to plant?
It is easy to plant tulips in the garden. Pick a sunny site that has good drainage. Tulips won’t grow well in shade and will rot in wet soil. Soil preparation is important when taking care of tulips.
Dig the area and loosen the soil about a foot (30 cm.) deep. You should add some compost or dried manure to the soil. Also, add some 5-10-5 or 5-10-10 granular fertilizer to help the bulbs grow. Mix the existing soil, amendments, and fertilizer, just like a cake batter until well blended.
After you have properly prepared the site for the tulips, you can easily dig the individual planting holes. You need to dig each hole three times as deep as the tulip bulb is tall. There should be twice as much soil over the tip of the bulb as the height of the bulb, so if your tulip bulb measures 2 ½ inches (5 cm.) tall, dig your hole 8 inches (20 cm.) deep, so you’ll have 5 inches (13 cm.) of soil above the bulb.
You should plant the bulb in groups often if you’re putting them in your perennial border, and space them a couple of inches (5 cm.) apart.
Set the bulb so the pointy end is facing up. Don’t worry if you get some upside down. They should flower anyhow, but it will take them longer to come through the ground in spring and they may not be as tall as they should.
After the tulips bulbs are planted, you need to water them thoroughly and then cover the area with a mulch of pine bark or shredded leaves to protect them.
Tulip And Their Various Colors
Red Tulips – Passion, lust, and interest
Pink Tulips – Caring attachment and wishing someone good wishes. Often used as an expression of friendship and appreciation to a friend or family member.
White Tulips – As with most white flowers, this also represents purity, innocence, forgiveness and respect. It is also sometimes used to express an apology.
Purple Tulips – The color of royalty, purple conveys the feeling that you are like a Queen or King. Often to update a wedding bouquet, brides will use a light purple for that special sentiment.
Yellow Tulips – While it used to mean besotted hopeless love, it has evolved to a more positive meaning. With its bright color reminiscent of the sun, it also indicates a welcome embrace of spring and cheerfulness.
Variegated Tulips – If you thought someone had beautiful eyes, you would go with these hybrids. Different and unique was this sentiment that dates would want to give to someone they are interested in.
Orange Tulips – Appreciating someone’s cheerfulness and friendship