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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!
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I was given some tulips already i full bloom and in pots, do I need to repot them into a bigger pot?
hi..we are staying in maine.
we bought thulip pot from sam's club.then we place it on out apartment with same pot.the thulip flowers are blooms,and fall,and leaves becomes yellow..
my question is should i keep bulbs in same pot for next season.. are (or) we have to remove bulbs from pot ?? and place in freezer for some period then plant in same pot with same soil??
In general, Maine is a great climate for tulips, but the ones you bought were forced to bloom two or three months before they would have bloomed normally. Possibly the period that they should have had to develop roots was shortchanged. That could explain why the leaves became yellow so quickly. Depending on how much energy from the sun the leaves were able to pick up before they turned yellow, the bulbs in your pots will not likely be able to produce bloom next year. I would give the bulbs to a friend who lives in a house with some ground. Let him or her plant them in their dirt so that they could go through a normal life cycle in 2014/15 and generate enough food to support blooming in 2016. For 2015 blooming, in your shoes, I would buy some nice fat new bulbs this coming fall at a garden store and plant them in those pots (or bigger pots) in October with a bit of low-nitrogen fertilizer (i.e., high in potash and phosphate). Put them on your balcony or anywhere else outside and simply let the Maine cold season temperatures do their work. Around the latter part of January you could bring them inside to a sunny spot and in few weeks you should have blooms.
Hello. I have recently purchased some tulips from Food Lion. They are very beautiful and in full bloom. I live in S.C and our temps. are from like the 50's in the daytime and 30's at night. (most of the time) Is it ok to plant my tulips outside now or do I need to repot them and wait til later? Thanks for any advice.
A variant on what the staff suggested -- once you are done enjoying the bloom indoors, cut the flower stem off and plant the tulips outside. Temperatures in the 30s, 40s and 50s are actually better for them than the warmth of the house, in terms of prolonging the period when the leaves will be able to soak up energy from the sun and store it in the bulbs for next year. In addition, much more UV energy will hit the leaves if they are outside than if they are shielded from the sun by window glass.
My only question is whether you will get enough cold next winter in your part of S. Carolina to trigger the 2015 bloom. Probably yes in Greenville or Spartanburg but probably no in Beaufort. If you're in the southern part of the state you might think about sinking the bulbs in their pots now; pulling them up after they foliage dies down, putting the pots in a cool dry place for the summer, giving water in the fall (to encourage root growth), and providing an artificial chill by putting the potted bulbs in refrigeration for about six weeks before putting them back outside. Maybe too much trouble, I know.
Allow the tulips to die back in the container they are in now. Then plant the bulbs outdoors.
Thank you so much for your help :)
I have some VD tulips that I would love to plant. I have zero experience with tulips. I live in zone 4 Nevada. Should I keep them indoors in a pot until early spring or can I move them inside and outside depending on the weather? I want them to live so I can border my hollyhocks with them.
Tulips bloom in the spring so they may not appear with hollyhocks.
Tulips need a cold period, so if you are in a year-round warm(er) climate in Nevada, you may have to make accommodations. If you live in a cold-winter area, plant them after they die back in the container they are currently in. Then plant them, or plant them in the fall. If you do not live in a cold-winter area, you can try putting the bulbs into the refrigerator (not freezer) in a ventilated bag for to 10 weeks. Plant them in late winter/early spring. Or try tricking them into planting at another time, although we can not guarantee success in any other season.
Thank you. We live in high desert, so yes it does get very cold here in the winter. Sometimes below zero. I knew they would not bloom with the hollyhocks but I was going for color bursts throughout the warm season. I also have morning glories that grow in the same area along with wild sunflowers. Thank you for your reply.
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