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Yellow tulips last spring at the Wellington Street entrance to the Vision Nursing Home in Sarnia. John DeGroot photo
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A pound of butter sells for over $7 and a liter of fuel just under $2, but a dozen tulip bulbs is well under $10.
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Tulips have always been one of gardeners’ biggest bargains. Plant them in the fall and in spring they will reward you with brightly colored blooms. At the end of spring the flowers fade and the bulbs lie dormant in the soil until they reappear the following spring. The process is repeated over several years.
Tulips are the classic spring flowers that have graced gardens for centuries. Years ago, yellow and red were the only colors available, but breeders have found ways to produce all colors except true blue and jet black.
The roots of tulips resemble a small onion with white flesh and brown skin. Plant them six or eight inches deep in well-drained soil and they will thrive. I usually plant them in clusters of 10 or 12. They prefer a spot in full sun, but also do well in the shade of trees where the leaves do not appear until May.
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Planting tulips is easy. Some gardeners dig individual holes and plant individually, aiming for about four or five inches apart. I prefer to dig an area about two feet in diameter and six to eight inches deep. I’ll amend the soil underneath with compost and spread out the tulips evenly, tip up. I will refill the soil, rake horizontally and water thoroughly to remove air pockets and give the tulips a run-in.
Fertilizer added at planting time will give the tulips a strong start. Repeat a year later, just after flowering. Use a low-nitrogen, high-phosphorus formula like 5-15-5 to encourage root growth. Bone meal, a natural plant food rich in phosphorus, is a favorite for tulips.
Tulips come in a dizzying array of flower types, colors and heights. Their height range is around 6 to 24 inches, although most are around 18 inches tall. In general, the taller the tulip, the later and longer it blooms.
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When tulips have finished flowering, they should be left in place until their leaves have turned brown and can be removed with a quick jerk, being careful not to leave the bulb in the ground underneath. Experts recommend cutting off the flower stalk after the petals fall off, but I have a habit of overlooking this step.
It takes about a month for the leaves to fade, leaving an unsightly mess for a short time in spring. At the end of May I plant annual flowers among the fading leaves and in mid-June the tulip leaves are trimmed revealing young flowers ready to show their colour.
Tulips are easy to grow and generally pest resistant. Their only enemies are squirrels, deer and other rodents, which sometimes dig up and scatter the bulbs. We have a lot of squirrels in our garden, which have not bothered us so far. Tricks to keep squirrels at bay include planting deep, applying blood meal as a deterrent, or adding some daffodils in the tulip garden. Die-hard gardeners who have a persistent squirrel problem will lay chicken wire over the bulbs as they plant.
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