Can one have enough of tulips? I know I certainly can’t, especially when it is cold, gray, muddy, and everything else that March brings with it. Even today, with the sun going full bore, and the snow melting, the color and brightness of the flowers can’t be beat.
You fabulous flower people are taking every tulip I can produce and I love it. It makes me so excited, believe you me. So now that I nearly have a year of forcing tulips under my belt, (I will have forced tulips into April, then the in ground tulips will take over) I am making plans for next year. I have figured out where I can do another 1000 bulbs, and I am planning to have far more varieties. It is all in that leaning curve.
The ranunculus and anemones have all now been planted in crates, with the last ones going into the high tunnel in the ground during our thaw this week. They will be joined with some cool season flowers. Yes, they will need protection from our most bitter nights but I honestly hope that the single digit nights are behind us now.
The next big batch of seeding will start, and the plant shuffle begins. One never has enough room for tulips and seedling this time of year, and it is only going to get worse.
I have had a couple of questions about tulip growing so, if you are interested, here goes. The ones that you are getting now are what is called pre-cooled, they have had their “winter” coming over on the ship. I plant them up, get the roots going, which takes about 4-5 weeks, then bring them into the growing space. There are also the tulips that are planted in the ground that are treated just like any other in ground spring plant. At harvest time, I pull the tulip bulb and all out of the ground, keep the tulip and toss the bulb. Ahhh, I hear a collective gasp. Yes. All of their energy has been used up being forced and I treat them as annuals. And when one does the math, they are about the same price of a six pac of annuals that you put in the garden in the summer, and those get tossed don’t they?
There is one main issue that I am having, along with all other tulip growers and that is stem topple. I know a few of you have mentioned it so I will do my best to explain it. It can be caused by fusarium, which tulips are very, very prone to, but it is also linked to high humidity. If the crates in the bulb room get too dry, and then given a lot of water when they are in the grow room, the water causes the cells to burst, hence the topple. It also happens to a lot of growers in the spring when they can’t vet the grow spaces enough and the temperatures and the humidity build up. I think the underlying problem is the fusarium, then the humidity just adds to it. The flowers themselves are fine, so I just cut them above the necrosis and put them in a bud vase.
I will still be dreaming tulips, so until nest week. Allie