Comments on: Tulips or Not Tulips: That is the Question

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:11:53 +0000

Alice, thank you for stopping by. It’s always nice to hear from someone new.

By: Alice Hartsock

Alice Hartsock — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:59:40 +0000

I am glad to have read about tulips, because I have not had good luck with them continuing to come back each year. Well, now I guess I know why. I treated them too good! Thanks for the information.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:16:50 +0000

I live in zone #5 and I just bought 30 rainbow tulip bulbs yesterday. We are recovering from a freck snow storm and are suppose to have rain all week long should I plant my tulips now or waite a week or so?

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 01:26:38 +0000

Rosemarie:

I’m experimenting with species or near-species bulbs – the hybrids you must certainly deadhead to force them to send their energy to their daughter bulb. The plants that are closer to their wild forms are made of tougher stuff.

All of this is great if it works. I don’t grow the tulips expecting them to return, so every year they do is a bonus!

By: Rosemarie

Rosemarie — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:35:01 +0000

I have read that you absolutely must cut off the tulips before they form seed pods, that this drains them of energy. Of course, I can’t bear to cut them while they still look good. And let’s face it, I never dead head, and don’t weed near enough, and my garden just looks messy, not lush!

By: Jenn

Jenn — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:19:09 +0000

I believe they would – they produce a lot of seeds, as I noticed this year, the first I left them alone.

I don’t know if they are being eaten from below. I’ve not noticed any rodent activity or subsiding soil, but it may well be possible.

What I think tho, is that the parent bulbs fade out over time, and the young from seed take their place.

The lily flowered ones are seed increases, they pop up some distance away from the parent plant.

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:04:18 +0000

That’s interesting, Jenn. Some plants, like Shasta daisies, peter out if you don’t deadhead them. But I guess you’re saying that the turkestanica would increase by seed if you didn’t deadhead them?

By: Jenn

Jenn — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:59:54 +0000

I have a lily-flowered tulip of the brightest white that I don’t know where it come from. I suspect my mom bought it as a grocery flower to brighten her kitchen and I planted it up. It’s surprizingly tough, and is even spreading a bit.

I also have some of the batalinii (I suspect it’s Bronze Charm) that increase each year for me.

I have a bad habit of deadheading my turkestanica, and subsequently each year the clump is slimmer and slimmer…

I suspect if I could curb my compulsions of deadheading and weeding seedlings out JUST A LITTLE, my garden would be a lot lusher. Sigh.

Any of the fancy tulips I may plant, I look at as short lived perennials at best. If I get more than one year out of them, I am happy. Needless to say, there are few of the big showies in my garden.