Hello...me again. Around here in zone 4 they recommend that you let the leaves die on there own so the bulbs get energized..Do you plant new bulbs each season or do yours come back? I have never heard of removing the leaves before they die back...it must be the difference in the climates.....I learn things every day....
That advice is 100% and perfectly correct. What I do is wrong, but the tulips are not what I am interested in so much as the plants that follow. It's because I don't spend alot of time in the garden at that time of year and rarely get to see the pretty things. But being Dutch, it seems wrong not to have a few tuliops planted. heh heh heh. As dor the others, well, I am simply more interested in the summer plants. That is the reason that I am so ruthless with them. Goodness knows how good they would do if I treated them properly. When the professional tulip buld growers do their thing, thay lop-off the flower heads as soon as the majority of the field is in bloom so that the energy goes into the buld. That is, after all, what gets exported. So for your garden at home, do please follow the advice there...it is correct.
I love how all of the first two photos are all uniformed in their openess. I love the mixture of colors in your own tulips. My few that I plant from time to time don't put on a good show. I planted a few in some planters and I am looking forward to seeing them in bloom this spring. If I get two blooms to fully open I will be happy. Thanks for the pics.
BE U TEA FULL Sjoerd - your tulips is amazing - I showed them to my family and they all in unison started singing that song - Tulips from Amsterdam.
Our whole front yard is mostly all sand. So when I planted flowers and tulips I used the sand and also put some black soil (some compost) in with them. Should they just have been left in the sand??
Sjoerd....I find it really hard to cut my flowers too. If a stem brakes or gets bent in the wind, then I bring it in. I brought in a gladiola last year that was broken and in the process of filling the sink with water to soak and get the bugs off, my cupboard was covered with ants...so now I will even think twice about that. You couldn't see a thing on it but they were hiding inside.... I have never planted over my tulips but I think I will give it a try if I run out of room.
PETUNIA: Actually, I would have thought that they would grow just fine (if only for one year) in the sand. Having said that, if your ground is purely sand it is possible that any water simply drained away TOO quickly, in which case a mulch of some sort would be helpful in retaining some moisture. If it was me and I had your yard, I would also have added some soil and compost and mixed it with sand then planted them (tulip bulbs). As for regular plants, I think that I would have dug large, and somewhat deep areas where I wanted shrubs or smaller plants to be, filled it with earth, compost and topped it off with humus. I say this because most plants seem to like the richness of darker soil, although obviously there are plants that live normally in sandy conditions. It's sort of a mystery why they didn't come up isn't it? Did you dig up any of the holes that you planted them in to see what remained? If the squirrels could have taken them you can put a fine mesh chicken wire-like covering over the bed and stake it down with tent pegs or the like. It could also have been fungus that destroyed them, I suppose (and this is always possible---you must look carefully at the bulbs when you buy them for the signs). I'm not sure where to start thinking, but it would be very helpful knowing what you found if you dug where you planted them...you know, to see if there was anything left over from the bulbs.
I'm clapping my hands! Bravo! Bravo! I'm so jealous! In Florida Tulips are only found in picture books! This is why I love what you do so much. Absolutely wonderful! Deborah
My tulips are peeking through the secret places that I've planted them. I could not put them in places that I wanted because of moles. The temp is not cold enough for them to flower the next season and I am not one to dig them up each year.
