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Re: 31 Years of Tulip Bloom

>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?
>

Another possibility is that the trees keep the soil drier during the
summer, more like the conditions they receive in their native lands. I've
often wondered, though, why these bulbs from areas with warm, dry summers
do so well for the cool, wet Dutch.

For me too, the only tulips that have bloomed for years are ones under
trees. But it's also true that only certain varieties have survived, and
variety reportedly also determines how likely they are to continue
blooming. I know White Flower Farm has offered a selection of what they
call perennial tulips that they claim bloom for years.

Gary Davis
Wisconsin, 4-5, cold winters, wet summers


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