How to Grow Tulips
Planning the Site for Growing Tulips
Choose a site you deem best for your tulips. Make sure the ground is not covered with frost yet. Select a place which could provide your plants generous amounts of sunlight. Choose an area with good crumbly soil and with pH levels of 5.5 to 6.5.
Preparing the Site for Growing Tulips
When you have selected the right area for your plants, work the soil well up to a foot deep and remove any weeds or rocks. Mix in peat moss, compost, and well-cured manure. Adding wood ashes and bone meal is also advisable to increase available plant nutrients. The recommended planting depth for tulips is four to five inches into the soil though for lighter soils, you should plant a couple of inches deeper. You cannot grow the exact appearance of a tulip cultivar from a seed. Planting from seeds would only result to flowers with a slight resemblance to their parents. Therefore, planting tulip offset or bulbs is recommended. Plant these bulbs with their flattened base down.
Required Materials for Growing Tulips
Tulip bulbs or offsets are of course required. Peat moss, compost, well-cured manure, wood ashes, and bonemeal are also needed. Gardening tools such as perennial planting tools and circle hoe are other requirements.
Watering Requirements of Tulips
Make sure to thoroughly water the soil after planting the bulbs. Continue to water your plants liberally until yellow foliage starts to show. There might be a need to set up an irrigation system during dry seasons from August to December.
Nutrients Required by Tulips
The nutrients required by tulips are phosphate, nitrogen, and potassium.
Seasons Apt for Growing Tulips
Tulips require the cold of the winter season to grow successfully. Hence, trying to plant tulips in the open in tropical countries would prove to be futile. Even if it gets cold in your area, if it does not snow, you might need to store you tulip bulbs in the refrigerator for about four to six weeks. This is needed to promote blooming.
Expectations/Results
Patience is needed for planting tulips. Merely the offsets take two to three years to cultivate. You would know when tulips are ready for harvest when 50% of the petals are showing the variety’s true color.