Time to Think of Tulips

When the Austrian ambassador to the Court of the Sultan of Turkey brought the first tulip to Europe in the 16th century, he could hardly have realized the significance of his gift to gardeners all over the world. Within a short time, the raising of tulips became an important industry in Holland. Choice varieties brought fabulous prices from the rich merchants during the “tulipomania” that raged throughout Holland and western Europe during the 17th century.

The name tulip which comes from “toliban” meaning turban refers to the shape of the flower, an inverted turban. Many types have been developed during the past 400 years, and hundreds of varieties are available in all the rainbow colors.

Bulb Is a Storehouse

Actually, a tulip bulb is a modified stem which acts as a storehouse for food to carry it through the normal period of dormancy for another year of growth. Firm bulbs, free from scars or dark spots, measuring from 3-1/2 to 5 inches, are best. Bulbs of the species tulips are much smaller. Beware of bargain offers at low prices, since the bulbs offered are usually too small to produce bloom, and the results are almost always disappointing.

Soil preparation is vital to the life of tulips if they are expected to produce satisfying bloom for several years. Furthermore, comparatively few gardeners lift their bulbs after flowering and thus adequate fertilizer, drainage and soil preparation are doubly essential. A thorough job pays dividends.

A well-drained, sunny location is as necessary as well-prepared soil. When tulips are expected to remain in the ground, remove the topsoil to a depth of at least eight inches and prepare the subsoil with compost or commercial fertilizer. If available, compost should be used at the rate of a generous shovelful for each five bulbs. Otherwise, a simple formula for feeding consists of one pound of dried manure plus a pound of bonemeal or superphosphate for each 20 bulbs. Neither fresh manure nor commercial fertilizer should be allowed to come in contact with the bulbs. Therefore, when using either, cover with soil before setting out the bulbs.

Tulips prefer a neutral soil if they are to flourish. Acidity can be counteracted by applying ground lime-stone to the location for tulips. Soil tests will indicate the amount – usually three to 10 pounds per 100 square feet according to the analysis.

Set the bulbs at least eight inches deep and six inches apart, measuring from the surface of the soil to the top of the bulb. In light soils the planting depth can be 10 or 12 inches. Deep planting protects bulbs from damage when cultivating, it prevents them from appearing too early in spring, keeps them cool in summer and it helps to develop larger bulbs. Species tulips should be set six to eight inches deep. If bulbs are to be removed after the foliage dies down, they can be planted five to six inches deep and soil preparations need not be as deep. Some gardeners always set their bulbs on a layer of sand. In any case, a thorough watering after planting helps to settle the soil and provides the necessary moisture to start growth.

How to Plant

Where and how to plant is a question which every gardener must settle for himself. If you want them in formal beds, and they are ideal for this treatment because of their distinctive form, four or five inches between bulbs is sufficient. For striking effects in flower or shrub borders, plant them in groups of eight, ten or more in order to create a strong note. In smaller groups their effectiveness is weakened. In this case, allow five or six inches between bulbs. To avoid spotty effects, keep varieties of one kind and color together, since they will all flower at the same time.

With deeply planted bulbs, no winter mulch is needed. In fact, tulips are entirely hardy so that no cover is required, but it does keep the ground uniformly cold and helps to prevent thawing and heaving and consequent injury to the bulbs. Apply the cover after the ground has frozen.

Tulips are fortunately not bothered by many pests, but one trouble is botrytis blight. This is a disease known to many as fire, a name given because it may spread through an entire planting during wet weather. It is especially severe during excessively rainy spring weather.

Tulip fire shows up as greenish spots on the leaves which later turn yellow and die. Buds often fail to open. The best control is to avoid planting bulbs in the same spot in successive years. If you must put them in the same bed, dig out the soil and bring tn fresh, disease-free loam. Infected bulbs should be burned. Where disease is apt to be present, spray young plants in the spring with Bordeaux mixture.

When Flowering Is Past

There are several ways to handle tulips after flowering time. One is to leave them in the same place for two or three years and divide them when they get crowded. Cut off flower heads as they fade to prevent seed pods from developing. Foliage should be allowed to ripen, so cut it only after it has become yellow and brown.

A second method is to lift the bulbs and heel them in the ground in an out-of-the-way corner of the garden. When leaves have matured, bulbs may be lifted and stored in a cool cellar or they may be taken up again and replanted in the fall.

The third method entails lifting the bulbs, foliage and all, after flowering and placing them in trays in a shady corner of the garden. Cut leaves off when they are brown and store bulbs away until planting time. All methods are successful, and the advantage of the last two is that geraniums, annuals or other plants may be planted to continue to the color parade. It is also possible to plant annuals over bulbs left in the ground, but use small, shallow-rooted kinds, like petunia, verbena, portulaca or annual phlox, rather than larger growing kinds with larger root systems.

In choosing types and varieties, color is often the basis for our selections. There are two groups of large-flowering tulips, however, that should be mentioned because they are outstandingly different and distinctive.

One is the lily-flowered. These tulips have striking, gracefully curved pointed petals that remind one of upright lilies.

The second group consists of the parrots. These have quaint flowers, with ragged, feathered edges that give the illusion of happy parrots poised in flight. For best effects, these and the lily-flowered tulips should be planted in front of evergreens or other foliage backgrounds where they will be striking.

Although the various groups of tulips make distinctive displays in themselves, they are even more pleasing when combined with such spring-flowering ground covers as creeping phlox, golden-tuft alyssum, arabis and a host of other rock plants. Taller growing perennials like iris, doronicum, early peonies, several kinds of bleeding hearts and other May flowering perennials, as well as such bulbs as Dutch iris and wood hyacinths, make desirable companion plants for the late-flowering tulips.

by George Winston

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