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RE: 31 Years of Tulip Bloom

That's a good question.  I DO have both squirrels and voles in some 
abundance.  The tulips are interplanted with daffodils, which, the 
squirrels and voles tell me, have a nasty taste.

Beats me.

Harry

On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, Miller, Devon wrote:

> Congratulations on your success.  But why don't your tulip bulbs get
> chomped on by squirrels and voles, the way mine do in Chevy Chase,
> Maryland?
>  ----------
> From: Harry Dewey
> To: Perennials
> Subject: 31 Years of Tulip Bloom
> Date: Thursday, October 23, 1997 1:29PM
> 
> On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, lowery@teamzeon.com wrote:
> 
> >   And hey, does anyone out there know how to make
> > tulips behave like the perennial they are supposed to be???  Mine
> never
> > bloom a second year!
> >
> I have a border about 30 feet long, entirely in shade, here in
> Beltsville, Maryland, in which about a dozen clumps of tulips have
> bloomed vigorously every year since I planted them in 1966.  The
> complete
> border is about 90 feet long, but about 60 feet of it was in full sun in
> 1966 and the tulips in that part of it bloomed for one or two seasons
> only.
> I haven't seen them since.
> 
> What is the secret of the ones that have survived and bloomed all these
> years?
> 
> I have told a lot of garden visitors about these shade-grown tulips, and
> have never found anyone who has said, "Well, that's the way tulips are
> supposed to be grown!"  My own theory is that it is the hot
> Washington-area summer sun that has something to do with it.  The
> 31-year
> tulips don't get ANY *hot* sunshine.  They are planted under a very
> large
> tulip poplar, which is, of course, leafless during the winter and during
> much of the spring.  So they DO get lots of winter and spring sunshine.
> The
> tulip leaves, which appear, as I recall, in early December most years,
> are
> able to make lots of food for the underlying bulbs during
> the entire winter and in much of the spring.  By the time the soil heats
> up elsewhere in the garden, the ground in which my tulips bulbs are
> sleeping remains cool under the shade of the tulip poplar.  Do tulip
> bulbs dislike very warm soil conditions during their dormant period?
> 
> Am I certain this is why these tulips are so long-lasting and
> long-blooming?  Not at all.  But my explanation is as logical as any
> that
> I have heard.
> 
> Perhaps a more logical theory would be this one:
> 
> Of course Harry's tulips have thrived where they are.  After all, didn't
> he plant them under a *tulip* poplar?
> 
> Well, and I hate to explode that theory, actually I didn't.  I lied.
> The
> big tree they are under is really a sweet gum (Liquidambar).  I often
> wish
> I'd tried them under a tulip poplar (liriodendron; I have six big ones).
> 
> The far eastern end of the bed in which the tulips thrive is also shaded
> by a parrotia, which I planted at the edge of the sweet gum's
> circumference (also in 1966).  It is now about fifteen or so
> feet tall, but the tulips under it would still be shaded most of the day
> by the sweet gum, which is just west of the parrotia.
> 
> Some visitors tell me the summer shade has nothing to do with it.
> But what do they know?  Invariably they admit they don't have any tulips
> that have been functioning flawlessly for 31 years.
> 
> Harry
> 
> Listowners, Alpine-L, the Electronic Rock Garden Society:
> Active: Louise Parsons & Harry Dewey; Quiet: Eric Gouda & Alexej
> Borkovec
> To join Alpine-L, send the message INFO to
> Alpine-L-Request@nic.surfnet.NL
> All Alpine-L members should use that address for Louise OR Harry,
> please.
> 
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Listowners, Alpine-L, the Electronic Rock Garden Society:
Active: Louise Parsons & Harry Dewey; Quiet: Eric Gouda & Alexej Borkovec
To join Alpine-L, send the message INFO to Alpine-L-Request@nic.surfnet.NL
All Alpine-L members should use that address for Louise OR Harry, please.

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