Planting, Growing, and Caring for Tulips
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Planting
Tulips prefer a site with full or afternoon sun. In Zones 7 and 8, choose a shady site or one with morning sun only, as tulips don’t like a lot of heat.
The soil must be well-draining, neutral to slightly acidic, fertile, and dry or sandy. All tulips dislike areas with excessive moisture. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost.
Tall varieties should be sheltered from strong winds.
When to Plant Tulips
- Plant tulip bulbs in the fall, 6 to 8 weeks before a hard, ground-freezing frost is expected. The bulbs need time to establish themselves. Planting too early leads to disease problems. See local frost dates.
- A good rule of thumb is to plant bulbs when the average nighttime temperatures in your area are in the 40s.
- In colder northern climates, plant in September or October. In warmer climates, plant bulbs in December (or even later).
- To find the best dates, consult our fall bulb planting chart.
- Nature never intended bulbs to loll about above ground, so don’t delay planting the bulbs after purchase.
- In southern climates with mild winters, plant bulbs in late November or December. The bulbs will need to be chilled in the refrigerator for about 12 weeks before planting. (Bulb suppliers often offer pre-chilled bulbs for sale, too.)
- If you miss planting your bulbs at the optimal time, don’t wait for spring or next fall. Bulbs aren’t like seeds. Even if you find an unplanted sack of tulips or daffodils in January or February, plant them and take your chances. See more about planting tulips in winter.
How to Plant Tulips
- Plant bulbs fairly deep—8 inches deep, or about three times the height of the bulb. Dig a hole deeper than that in order to loosen the soil and allow for drainage. In clay soils, plant 3 to 6 inches deep instead.
- Space bulbs 4 to 6 inches apart.
- Set the bulb in the hole with the pointy end up. Cover with soil and press soil firmly.
- Water bulbs right after planting. Although they can’t bear wet feet, bulbs need water to trigger growth.
- If you’re planning to raise perennial tulips, feed them a balanced fertilizer when you plant them in the fall. Bulbs are their own complete storage system and contain all of the nutrients they need for one year. Use organic material, compost, or a balanced time-release bulb food.
- To deter mice and moles—if they have been a problem—put holly or any other thorny leaves in the planting holes. Some gardeners use kitty litter or crushed gravel. If ravenous voles and rodents are a real problem, you may need to take stronger measures, such as planting bulbs in buried wire cages.
- Don’t lose hope if you’re planting your tulips later in the season—just follow these tips.
Growing
- If it rains weekly, do not water. However, if there is a dry spell and it does not rain, you should water the bulbs weekly until the ground freezes.
- Rainy summers, irrigation systems, and wet soil are death to tulips. Never deliberately water a bulb bed unless in a drought. Wet soil leads to fungus and disease and can rot bulbs. Add shredded pine bark, sand, or any other rough material to the soil to foster swift drainage.
- Apply compost annually to provide nutrients needed for future blooms.
- In the spring, when leaves emerge, feed your tulip the same bulb food or bone meal you used at planting time. Water well.
- Deadhead tulips as soon as they go by, but do not remove the leaves!
- Allow the leaves to remain on the plants for about 6 weeks after flowering. The tulips need their foliage to gather energy for next year’s blooms! After the foliage turns yellow and dies back, it can be pruned off.
- Large varieties may need replanting every few years; small types usually multiply and spread on their own.
Types
Tulip flowers may be single, double, ruffled, fringed, or lily-shaped, depending on the variety.
- ‘Cracker’ tulip: purple, pink, and lilac petals; midseason bloomer
- ‘Ile de France’: red blooms on stems to 20 inches tall; midseason bloomer
- ‘Marilyn’: large, ruffled, candy cane-color flower; late-season bloomer
- ‘Spring Green’: creamy-white petals feathered with green; late-season bloomer
- ‘Renown’: hot pink, egg-shape flower; late-season bloomer
Wild, or “species,” tulips are small in size, ranging in height from 3 to 8 inches. They are tougher than hybrids. Rock and herb gardens are ideal places to plant them. They look stunning when planted in large groupings.
- For early to midspring bloom time: Tulipa bakeri, T. batalinii, T. humilis, T. kaufmanniana, T. turkestanica
- For later blooming time: T. linifolia, T. neustreuvae, T. sprengeri, T. vvedenskyi
- For multicolor varieties: T. biflora, T. greigii ‘Quebec’, T. praestans ‘Fusilier’ and ‘Unicum’, T. tarda, T. turkestanica
- For a container: T. kaufmanniana ‘Goudstuk’
- For (mottled) foliage: T. greigii (mottled or striped), T. fosteriana ‘Juan’, T. kaufmanniana ‘Heart’s Delight’
- For fragrance: T. aucheriana, T. biflora, T. saxatilis, T. sylvestris, T. turkestanica
- For warmer regions: Lady tulip (T. clusiana), Candia tulip (T. saxatilis), and Florentine tulip (T. sylvestris) overwinter in the South or mild-winter areas of the West (Zones 8 to 10) without the need of a chilling period
There are so many beautiful varieties of tulips. Explore catalogs and experiment in your garden!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I live in Chesterfield Virginia. My wife's favorite flowers are Tulips. Can not grow them in the yard because of the Deer. As soon as they start to bud, the deer are feasting. This year I tried growing them in pots on my deck which is safe from all the deer. This worked out real well but now, how do I handle the bulbs for next year? I have cleaned up all the bulbs - remove the dirt by hand. What next? I understand that there must be a refrigeration time period but when and how long......Any suggestions?
Sprinkle cut human hair on your foilage to repel deer. This seems to work pretty well (we live in the country). I forgot to do it this year and the little buggers clipped my azaleas right before they blooms. GRRR I have used this method on hostas too and it worked, so I'm sure it would work on tulips or whatever else.
We live with many deer and have hostas and tulips which often go to the deer eating them. This year we surrounded the items with green stiff chicken wire and covered with light black plastic netting. They never touched a single plant!!
My tulips have divided after I lifted them will they still flower next year.
We have a tulip garden in Kashmir, where the flowers do not last for more than two weeks. Is it possible to grow tulip flowers in Ladakh, where the ambient atmosphere is dry with very scant rainfall and the winter temperature dip almost -25 to -30 degrees Celcius?
Hello Jigmet,
tulips can survive such cold winters - I live in Northern Ontario, Canada, and it is often -30 to -40 C in the winter. They like dry summers too...you may need to water them, especially in the spring, but they should survive the cold! Good luck!
I was given a tulip planter with a number of blooms in the spring but it was too cold to plant it outdoors. I still have the bulbs. How would I preserve the bulbs through the summer so that I can plant them in the fall?
My husband and I were making a new flower bed where some tulips already resided and bloomed yearly. When he dug up the grass surrounding them we pulled out over 30 bulbs where we only thought there was maybe 5 tulips. They are currently sitting in an empty pot outside since I am unsure what exactly to do with them. I don't want them to die, and they are all hard bulbs and not mushy at all. We live in Kansas, so we definitely have cold winters for them to chill. I am thinking the crab grass that they were in was possibly stopping them from growing. Should I replant them now, or store them until fall like in the basement or something?
It would be best to store them for now and replant them in the fall. Wash off any excess soil from the bulbs, make sure that they are dry, and store them in a cool, dry place (your basement might be the perfect environment).
In late April I purchased tulip bulbs in the Amsterdam airport..
I live in zone 6A....
Do i tore the bulbs until fall in a cool dark place?
Do the bulbs need to refrigerated prior to planting? If so how long?
What is the recommended depth of the hole for planting the bulbs?
What type of food do you recommend? a time release product?
Should I put gravel in the hole before the bulb?
Do the bulbs need to be removed from the soil after the stems turn yellow? If so....do i store them in a cool dark place?
