How to grow tulips: Understanding

How to GROW WITH GRAHAM RICE

This week... Tulips

For a wide range of colours and a variety of shapes, choose tulips as your spring flower

It’s almost time to plant tulips, and for a vibrant splash of colour you can’t go wrong with a grouping of the lily-flowered ‘Ballerina’

TULIPS are distinctive, easily recognised spring flowers that develop from bulbs about the size of a small onion. Each bulb produces a vertical stem from 6-26in (15-65cm) tall carrying oval leaves, mainly towards the base of the stem and becoming smaller higher up. A few varieties have prettily marked foliage.

Each stem is topped by a goblet or cup-shaped flower usually made up of six petals that can be rounded, pointed, fringed or reflexed. The three outer petals may be marked, splashed or coloured differently from the inner three. Some tulips have multi-petalled double flowers while a few varieties produce more than one flower at the top of the stem.

Reliable spring colour

Tulip flowers come in all colours except true blue, including almost black, and in some especially colourful varieties the petals may be streaked, splashed or striped in contrasting shades. Some are scented, and most make long-lasting cut flowers.

Tulips provide reliable spring colour in any sunny place in the garden, although they may not always be long-lived, and are especially attractive grown in containers with other spring flowers.

Fringed tulip ‘Cummins’ brings a stylish addition to pots in late spring

Where to buy

De Jager  dejager.co.uk & 01622 840229 Peter Nyssen  peternyssen.com & 0161 747 4000 Pheasant Acre  pheasantacreplants.co.uk & 01656 664 086

Three kinds of tulips

Tulips can helpfully be divided into three groups, according to how they are used in the garden.

Kaufmanniana tulips suit a rock garden situation

Rock garden tulips

Rock garden tulips are dwarf varieties, usually not more than 12in (30cm) tall, and are ideal in rock gardens, raised beds, window boxes and troughs. Some have leaves that are attractively striped in dark, smoky purple. Rock garden tulips can be left in place for a number of years and will usually flower well.

Tulip ‘Grand Perfection’ is a stylish Rembrandt type ideal for bedding

Bedding tulips

Most tulips come under the heading of bedding tulips and will thrive in any good soil in full sun. They are planted in late autumn, flower in the spring and then may, or may not, bloom again the following year.

Tulipa sylvestris naturalises well and carries scented golden flowers

Wild tulips

These are tulips that you can leave in the ground permanently and will spread steadily and bring colour year after year. Some enjoy sun and well-drained soil, others prefer more humus-rich conditions.

When to plant tulips

1Most spring-flowering bulbs are best planted in early to mid-autumn, but tulips are an exception in most climates. The main problem with growing tulips is a fungal disease called tulip fire. It gets its name from the fiery reddish colouring that develops in the leaves as it infects and kills the plants. Delayed planting reduces the chances of infection.

2Tulips prefer a sunny situation and almost all prefer soil that is well-drained, although a few wild tulips prefer soil with more organic matter and this will be noted on the pack.

3When planting tulips in containers, use fresh, moist potting mix and raise the containers on pot feet to ensure that drainage is good. Wet potting soil will kill your tulips.

How to choose tulips

Early single tulips Dwarf to mid-height varieties in many colours, often flecked or streaked. Early-mid spring. 14-18in (35-40cm). Early double tulips Fully double, often streaked in another colour. Mid-spring. 12-16in (30-40cm). Triumph tulips: All colours, often edged or streaked in other shades. Mid-late spring. 14-24in (35-60cm). Darwin hybrid tulips: Often very bright flowers tinted or edged in a different shade. Mid-late spring. 20-28in (50-70cm). Single late-flowering tulips: Most colours, often with contrasting edges. Late spring. 18-30in (45-75cm). Lily-flowered tulips: Elegant flowers with elegant reflexed petals. Late spring. 18-26in (45-65cm). Fringed tulips: Most colours, but with fringed edges often in a different shade. Late spring. 14-26in (35-65cm). Viridiflora tulips: Flowers green, or green striped with a brighter shade. Late spring. 14-26in (38-55cm). Rembrandt tulips: White, yellow or red flowers striped or feathered. Late spring. 18-26in (45-65cm). Parrot tulips: Flowers unevenly striped in contrasting colours. Late spring. 14-24in (35-60cm). Late double (Peony) tulips: Fully double flowers, in white to purple colours, some bicolours. Late spring. 14-24in (35-60cm). Kaufmanniana tulips: Dwarf varieties, often with multicoloured flowers and maroon leaf markings. Early-mid spring. 6-12in (15-30cm). Fosteriana tulips: Mid-height varieties in red, yellow or white. Mid spring. 14-18in (38-45cm). Greigii tulips: Dwarf varieties in reds and yellow, often with maroon leaf markings. Early-mid spring. 6-12in (15-30cm). Wild tulips: Relatively dwarf varieties to naturalise in the rock garden or in grass. Late winter to late spring. 4-14in (10-35cm).

How to propagate tulips

1After digging up and drying off your tulips in early summer, the smaller bulbs can be grown on for a season to Ensure to plant in free-draining soil in full sunshine fatten up and develop flower buds. Choose a sunny, fertile but well drained site and plant the bulbs 4-5in (10-12cm) deep and 6-8in (15-20cm) apart in rows in late autumn.

2From early spring onwards, irrigate in dry spells and fertilise with an all-purpose plant food every two or three weeks until the foliage starts to show signs of dying off.

3When the foliage has turned brown, dig up the bulbs and dry them off. In late autumn, plant the fattest bulbs for flowering the following spring.

4Tulip experts sometimes grow wild tulips from seeds, but the young bulbs take years to develop to flowering size so this approach is not recommended for most gardeners.

Lift and dry tulip bulbs, then replant the largest for next year’s display

TI Archive How to GROW WITH GRAHAM RICE

Late double tulip ‘Lilac Perfection’ has long-lasting flowers on shorter stems

Solving problems with tulips

Plants infected with tulip fire become distorted and die

THERE are two main problems that can spoil your display of tulips. Badly drained soil will encourage the roots and bulbs to rot, and if the soil becomes waterlogged at any time of year your display will be ruined. The only solutions are to improve the drainage before planting again, or to plant your tulips in another site.

The other problem is the disease tulip fire. This fungus disease creates red colouring in distorted leaves as it kills both bulbs and foliage. Tulip fire infects the foliage as it emerges in the autumn and this is the key to its prevention: plant late to reduce the chances of infection.

Why are there no flowers on my tulips?

IF planted in the right situation, newly bought tulips are pretty much guaranteed to flower – the embryonic flower bud is already formed inside the bulb when you plant it. However, plant in wet soil or in the shade and your tulips may flower feebly – or not at all.

Tulips that have flowered well in the past and have been left in the ground may fail to flower because the bulbs did not build up the necessary reserves the previous year. Feeding will help, and remember never to cut back the stems and leaves until they have turned brown.

If you dug up your tulips, dried them off for summer storage and then replanted them, the smaller bulbs may well not bloom and will need an extra growing season to build up reserves and form a flower bud.

Apply a water-soluble fertiliser, such as Miracle-Gro All Purpose