Re: tulips

In a message dated 12/3/02 8:28:01 PM Eastern Standard Time, Meum71@aol.com 
writes:


> The species Tulips can do much better and so can the Darwin types.
> There are still a few old Darwin's around here that still bloom every 
> year-for the last twenty years.

I have a clump of red/orange undistinguished tulips that rebloom.   They grow 
in sand and are quite dry all summer.

This is an often asked question in the US as all of us have had dreams of 
drifts of returning spring color from tulips.  The breakdown of the bulb and 
the appearance of the single leaf or an occasional small flower happens 
everywhere making the tulip an annual for US gardeners (apart from species 
bulbs).  

Older immigrant gardeners waited for mostly dried off foliage, lifted, 
cleaned and stored tulip bulbs. They were kept until quite cold and replanted 
late in the fall.  This way they escaped the summer rains of the northern 
part of our country.  They are natives of low rainfall areas, many for 
instance from Turkey.

These old gardeners valued each bulb as higher cost and thrift of the past 
would dictate these methods.  They would be the gardeners who had the 
windowsills lined with tomato cans filled with early starts of vegetables.  
Thus, they has some success with enduring tulip bulbs.

I have been reading this question and various answers for years.  Centuries 
of complex breeding removing species vigor is another point often mentioned.  
My long lasting bulbs were a package purchased in Canada years ago when they 
were all but done selling and planted here around Christmas in the sandpile 
as that was all that could be dug into.  Their peculiar color is testimonial 
and being left in the store until December would indicate noone thought them 
terrific in the fall.

Americans will not, I am sure, do what is necessary each spring and fall to 
keep tulips healthy and propagating themselves when repurchase is so cheap.  
Paul's suggestion to use as annuals is a good one.  If you choose early 
bloomers, it will be cooler when they bloom and you will have flowers for a 
much longer time. Single early cultivars have the best return record here.

Tulips are the favorite food of voles in fall and winter.  Here any planted 
may never make their first spring so I no longer plant tulips except in pots 
to force for indoor bloom.  I have had a years long battle with keeping 
species tulips alive with some success by planting them in grit and stones.  
I also plant a few daffodils with them and that, I like to think, often 
works.

Don't be too upset with the tulip problem, enjoy the first year's bloom and 
research the many bulbs that will endure in your zone and climate.  One is 
planting bulbs in the northern US every year which would indicate that we do 
not have the summer dryness most require, tend to lose them in the garden 
over the summer and plant other things on top of them, and fail to lift and 
store those needing a cool dry rest.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4 

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