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Re: 31 Years of Tulip Bloom

I agree with Gary's message - that tulips need to be in WELL DRAINED soil 
and it may also be the variety.  I have no explanation about the Dutch soil, 
except even though moist, maybe it is sandy enough to be well drained.  Do 
we know whether they keep replanting or whether they can keep the same bulb 
producing without that hassle?

Here in central Indiana we are part of the "zombie zone" where we often have 
extreme heat and dry conditions in the summers, sub-zero temps and extra 
moisture in the winters.  In the fall of 94 I planted 20 white tulip bulbs 
(can't remember the name now) in a clump by themselves under my HUGE 
sycamore tree that provides only light shade because the lowest branches are 
quite far above the ground.  I had 20 flowers in the spring of 95 as 
expected.  But in the spring of 96, I had 40 flowers and this past spring 
there were even more (50+).  I know the sycamore likes lots of water, so I 
think it takes what it wants and therefore the tulips are very well-drained! 
I did not do much amending to that area and it is clay country around here.  

Anyway, my theory on the repeating and multiplying blooms is the probable  
dryness in that spot due to the tree with or without summer shade.  I 
planted bulbs in another area not near a tree and they did not make it the 
second year and I'm sure that area of clay soil was far moister.  I planted 
another smaller bunch of a different tulip on the other side of same tree 
also in 94.  They have not multiplied, but only some have disappeared.  So 
again the dryness theory plus variety could be the answer.


--- On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 16:28:17 -0500  Gary Davis 
<gdavis@facstaff.wisc.edu> wrote:
>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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Name: Diane Rice
E-mail: drice@doe.state.in.us
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Date: 10/23/97
Time: 17:12:59

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