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Re: 30 yr old tulips

 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?



> 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




I too have long-lived tulips (only 26 years, I have to confess). They
are growing in Eastern England at the foot of my west-facing
house-wall, where, like Harry,s rthey are fairly well-shaded for much
of the day, particularly during te summer when they are dormant. This
would seem to back up Harry's theory. I would add as well that they
are in the most fee-draining and the most sheltered part of my
garden, which I should imagine also helps.
Janet Galpin, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK, Min temp: -9C




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