Tulips
Post categories: cut flowers,Ìýtulips
| 07:00 UK time, Saturday, 29 October 2011
Tulipa 'Ballerina'
Tulips make the best spring-flowering cut flowers. There's nothing that comes near their incredible range of colours and their variation of flower shapes from the tall, and elegant Lily-flowered, to the frilly-edged and crimped Parrot brigade. In the vase of 'Crème Upstar', 'Ballerina' and 'Orange Favourite' they're scented too, with a sweet fragrance reminiscent of freesias.
They last brilliantly in water, particularly if you pick them and then strip most of the leaves, before plonking them into a bucket of cold water, with a sheet of chicken wire attached over the top. Leave them like this for 4 to 6 hours. This allows the stems to set rigid, with every flower completely straight on its stem, and puts right that classic tulip problem where the flowers hang forlornly over the edge of a vase.
Now is the moment for planting Tulips.Ìý They start putting roots down and the cold temperatures help to wipe out viral and fungal diseases that lurk in the soil and which may infect the bulbs. Planting late is a traditional means of disease protection.
Tulipa 'acuminata'
Tulips should go in deep, in trenches or holes dug to 20-30cms. Deeper planting means you won't need to stake and kept cool, deep down in the soil, means your tulips are more likely to flower year after year.
I use a bulb planter with a spade like handle to do my planting in borders, but in the cutting garden we dig out trenches and plant tulips in those.
If you garden on heavy soil, cover the base of wherever you're planting with 5cm of washed sharp sand, horticultural grit, or spent compost. Add a handful of bonemeal to encourage formation of next year's flowers and mix it into the soil and grit at the base of the hole. Place the tulip bulbs, pointy end up, about 8cm apart and cover with soil. Again, if you garden on heavy soil you can mix grit at approximately one-third volume with the infill soil.
If you're short of space, cover the first lot of bulbs with soil and then add a second layer before filling in the hole. There is still enough soil above the bulbs to allow you to over plant without damaging them. We do mixed colour combinations in the cutting garden just like this, with lots of crimson-black varieties (such as 'Black Hero', 'Havran', and 'Queen of Night') in the base layer, with some carmines and brighter reds (such as 'Tambour Maitre', 'Antraciet' and 'Jan Reus') on top for contrast.
On poor soil, it's worth giving almost all spring-flowering bulbs a feed in the early spring. This helps with root and bulb formation and will encourage them to stick around and flower on and on for years.
When you cut tulips, make sure you leave a short section of the leafy part of the stem below where you cut. This gives the bulb a chance to make enough food to survive through the dormant period and makes it more able to produce flowers the following year. It is also important to leave the browning foliage on your tulips until every leaf has died right down, usually by early summer.
I have found no benefits from digging up tulip bulbs after flowering each year, so I leave them in place. In mid-June I rake up all the dead foliage, mulch with 5-8cm of compost or well-rotted manure and over plant with half-hardy flowers or vegetables like courgettes or pumpkins.
is a broadcaster and garden writer.
Comment number 1.
At 30th Oct 2011, hereisabee wrote:As I understand, tulips grow their flower as they emerge from the soil, unlike the hyacinth which can be placed over water and will produce a perfect bloom. So even if you planted small sized bulbs, if you give them lots of goodness as they grow, then the flowers can be as good as if from larger bulbs?
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Comment number 2.
At 3rd Nov 2011, JohnnyfruitandVeg wrote:A new thread - Growing salad crops & root on a South facing Window sill in the Autumn/winter ?
I have 90 cm (L) x 18 cm (W) - window sill - south facing - would like to be able to grow some lettuce/Raddish/Rocket in a 40 cm planter
in the other 40 cm I would like to grow some carrots and/or parsnips ( inside)
or
Outside on patio
Have been unable to locate deep planter for inside for carrots, would I be ok planting some carrot/Parsnip seedling outside now with a Fleece or polytunnel cover or are the days too short ?
or
should I just wait until spring ?
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Comment number 3.
At 8th Nov 2011, Sally Nex wrote:Hereisabee - we put your question to Sarah Raven and she went back to her tulip supplier in Holland for you. Here's what he said:
'To have a bloom with excellent/ uniform performance you have to plant a bulb size 12+. If you have size 10 then it could give a good flower but conditions have to be optimum and if you plant a group of them you will see that there will be no uniform display, which will be for sure if you plant out 12+.' I believe the figures refer to circumference (in centimetres) - so a 12+ bulb will be a big fat bulb measuring 12cm or more around its girth. This would seem to imply that size does matter - and the bigger your bulb, the bigger the flower.
Johnny: there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't grow a healthy crop of salads from a 40cm planter this winter - but I'd move them away from the south-facing windowsill to something less fierce. Even winter sun can be very drying through glass and lettuce in particular prefer a little shade, so west- or even east-facing would be better.
Choose winter varieties - 'Winter Density' or 'Rouge d'Hiver' are lovely - or a winter mix including lots of hardier oriental leaves. Radish should do well too. Rocket is fine, and so are annual herbs like chervil and parsley. Keep it all well watered though as they'll bolt as soon as they're allowed to dry out.
It's too late to sow parsnips I'm afraid - they have a very long growing season so you'll only be able to start them in February at the earliest (for next winter). Carrots, though, can be grown right through winter as long as you choose the round-rooted 'Paris Market' types: they form roots much more quickly, of course, and though they're only snack-sized you've got half a chance of getting them to maturity even during winter. The same applies to your planter outside (under fleece or polythene cloches though, to be on the safe side).
Good luck - and let us know how you get on!
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