How to grow tulips on a windowsill for the spring holidays? How to properly plant tulips at home Tulip care at home.

Tulip fever, which began in Holland half a millennium ago and captured the whole world, continues today. There is not a single florist or gardener who would not dream of expanding his collection of tulip varieties and who would not be familiar with this special bulbous star. Tulips do not need any introduction, but this does not reduce the nuances in their cultivation, as well as the options for using them in garden design.

Growing tulips. © John Markowski

A simple portrait of a difficult tulip

Representing the Liliaceae family, tulips are, without exaggeration, the most popular and widespread bulbs. They can no less be called the most diverse, because the number of varieties and varieties of tulips is measured not in hundreds, but in tens of thousands, and the choice of shape, structure, and colors of flowers increases from year to year. And although the classification of tulips is not easy to understand, it is impossible to confuse tulips with other bulbous plants.

Representatives of the Tulip genus are bulbous perennials with a modified stem. All plant organs are laid in a pear-shaped or ovoid bulb. Generations of bulbs change annually: during the growing season, young bulbs are laid, and faded ones die off. The primordia of peduncles and flowers develop in the bulbs during the summer dormant period. In autumn, the bulbs take root, the process of laying a peduncle is completed, and after wintering active growth and flowering occurs, and the cycle repeats again.

The development of tulips occurs so rapidly that one cannot help but be surprised by the shortened, but amazingly active growing season of this bulbous plant. In tulips, not only leaves and peduncles develop rapidly, but also the bulb, roots, and daughter bulbs. On average, in regions with harsh winters, the entire growing season of tulips covers only 3 months from the formation of leaves to flowering and the formation of replacement bulbs. During a period of such active development, conditions and care are very important for tulips, which should compensate for any vagaries of the weather.

Tulip bulbs consist of a bottom and from one to six storage scales, covered with protective integumentary scales. The bulbs produce underground stolons, leaves and strong, succulent flower stalks. Each bulb hides the buds embedded in it, from which new bulbs are formed - the central one (replacement bulb), daughter bulbs (from buds hidden in the axils of the storage scales) and children developing in the axils of the covering scales.

The height of tulip flower stalks ranges from less than 30 cm to more than half a meter. The leaves are fleshy, clasping the stem, elongated-oval, entire-edged, quite rigid, becoming smaller from the bottom to the topmost leaf. There are up to 5 leaves on one stem, although tulips are often limited to just two leaves.

Tulips most often produce single flowers, in the structure of which five concentric circles can be distinguished, obeying three-ray or triangular symmetry. They are easily identified by the six-membered perianth: the flower always consists of six petals or the number of lobes equal to six in simple tulips. The distinctive features of tulips are the six stamens, also arranged in two circles, and the three-lobed stigma of the pistil. The flowers themselves of this bulbous plant are amazingly diverse - from simple to double, goblet-shaped, lily-flowered, cup-shaped, oval and even star-shaped - to parrot and fancy forms.

The colors are no less varied. Tulips come in single-color and multi-color, pastel and bright, exotic and classic. White, pink, red, purple, yellow, orange are not the only options. The color range of tulips includes blue, indigo, shades of green, and natural colors closest to black.

The flowering period of tulips starts with the first early varieties in April and ends only in June. Despite the extremely limited flowering period of each individual plant, the selection of tulip varieties allows you to extend the parade of this bulbous star for almost 3 months. After flowering, dense fruit boxes ripen.

The variety of tulips is simply unimaginable. More than 100 natural species, the crossing of which has generated more than 17 thousand registered varieties, which in turn are divided into classes, groups, subclasses, categories... Most tulips are bred from botanical plant species from the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. Traditionally, the market is dominated by Dutch tulips, but dozens of new varieties appear in many garden centers around the world almost every year.

The only correct criterion for choosing tulips is to buy plants in accordance with your tastes and preferences, choosing primarily according to aesthetic characteristics. After all, tulips really allow everyone to choose plants to their liking, making the collection as individual and bright as possible.

Growing tulips. © dutchgrown

Using tulips in garden design

Tulips are spring-blooming stars that have long become indispensable for decorating any garden. They are collected, used as small seasonal accents, or turned into the star of the spring garden. And they are grown only in groups, since single plants can easily get lost.

Tulips are placed in islands, spots, and strictly shaped “pockets.” If plants are planted separately, they are placed so that later it is easy to fill the area with annual stars, most often with the strict contours of a tulip area. In flower beds and in complex compositions, planting in strict shapes or lines is inferior in popularity to placing these bulbous bulbs in irregular groups - from small “spots” of 5-7 bulbs to larger islands.

Tulips in the garden can be used:

in flower beds and front flower beds;
in discounts;
in spring spots and islands on the lawn, under bushes and trees;
in borders and ribbon flower beds;
in beds of annuals;
in rock gardens and rockeries;
in potted gardens, containers, flower beds both in the garden and on balconies, terraces, and in indoor culture.

Tulips are a valuable cut crop. They are brought out especially for the holidays and early spring, and are used for complex arrangements and simple bouquets.

Selection of partners for tulips

The status of one of the most common plants leaves its mark on the choice of partners: these bulbous plants are luxurious blooming spring accents, small but stunningly beautiful stars that should always remain in the foreground. For tulips, there is no need to select partners to reveal their beauty; they go well with garden plants that can grow in similar conditions to them - from shrubs and trees to herbaceous perennials, other bulbous and tuberous plants, annuals and seasonal stars. If tulips are introduced into flower beds, then they are combined with plants that can fill the voids and then hide their fading greenery.

The best partners for tulips among herbaceous perennials are considered to be hostas, phlox, astilbe, garden geraniums, daylilies, cuffs, tenacious, arabis, and aubrieta. Among spring-flowering plants, tulips are most often combined with daffodils, forget-me-nots, violets, muscari and primroses, but tulips with hyacinths, anemones, and hellebores highlight each other’s beauty just as well.

Species and varietal tulips are plants that differ in the degree of decorativeness, size, variability, flower colors, and in their hardiness and unpretentiousness. With rare exceptions, species tulips are plants that can be “planted and forgotten.” Their agricultural technology is much simpler and deserves separate consideration. Varietal tulips are less persistent, they reveal the beauty of flowering most fully when dug up annually, and are vulnerable to diseases and pests. Growing varietal tulips is not such a difficult task. But there are many important nuances in plant care that you should never forget about.

Conditions necessary for tulips

Bulbous favorites can only be called undemanding plants conditionally: tulips bloom and grow only in favorable conditions; both lighting and soil characteristics are important for them.

Tulips are light-loving crops that are planted in sunny places or in diffusely bright light. The later a tulip variety blooms, the better it tolerates light shading, but for varietal tulips a sunny location is still more preferable. Tulips are not afraid of the proximity of large shrubs or trees, if the leaves of the latter bloom late and during flowering the bulbs will not suffer from strong shading.

Only high-quality, deeply worked garden soils are suitable for tulips. This bulbous plant is grown in sandy loam and loam, loose, well-drained, light and nutritious soils. The reaction of the soil for tulips is very important: this bulb does not tolerate an acidic environment, it is planted only in neutral or slightly alkaline soils. Before planting, the soil is adjusted to optimal texture and composition. Tulips do not tolerate fresh organic matter.

Areas for growing tulips should be flat or with a slight slope, warm, and well heated. It is better to protect plants not only from the risk of water stagnation, but also from drafts or winds.

When choosing a place to grow tulips, it is worth considering that when grown for five years in a row in the same place, the risks of plant infection by pests and diseases increase. Tulips are not planted after daffodils, lilies and other bulbous plants, which are often affected by the same viruses and diseases.

Planting tulips

It is better to prepare for planting tulips in advance. Any organic fertilizers, except compost and humus, should be added to the soil only a few years before planting, preferably under the previous crop. Pre-planting soil improvement comes down to several procedures:

deep digging (at least 30 cm, with sampling of weed roots);
correction of the composition of sandy and clayey soils;
adding humus or compost (2 buckets per square meter), wood ash (1 cup per square meter) and mineral fertilizers.

When improving the soil, a standard (40-60 g) portion of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers is added to it. can be poured into the bottom of planting holes or mixed with soil. It is better to apply nitrogen fertilizers immediately before planting. If mineral fertilizers have not been added to the soil in advance, then before planting, complete mineral fertilizers are used in a proportion of 100 g per square meter of soil.

The preparation of the planting site is carried out at least a month before planting the tulips. If there is an increased risk of water stagnation in the area or the groundwater is high, then a high layer of drainage must be laid under the entire bed.

Tulips are planted from the third ten days of August to the first ten days of October. Traditionally, September is called the “tulip” month, but if the weather is favorable, the planting time for tulips can be extended. For the middle zone, you can focus on the temperature: tulips are planted when the soil temperature drops to 10 degrees Celsius at a depth of 10 cm. Late planting dates are determined so that the bulbs have 20-30 days left before stable frosts for their high-quality rooting.

Before planting in the soil, all bulbs must be carefully re-inspected. Any deviations in appearance, signs of damage or decay serve as the basis for culling. Particular attention should be paid to traces of viral lesions and bulb mites.

It is advisable to plant the bulbs sorted by size separately, without mixing them with each other. Large and small bulbs are planted together only if they are not planned to be dug up annually.

Before planting, bulbs are also treated with fungicide solutions (the classic version is a solution of potassium permanganate with a concentration of 0.5%). Etching is carried out for half an hour or an hour. The bulbs are planted without drying.

Tulips are planted depending on how large the group will be and what the role of tulips in flower beds is. If tulips are planted in a small spot or island, then planting can be done in a large general shallow planting hole. When planting over a large area, planting is carried out in trenches. The depth of holes or trenches for planting tulips is about 20 cm.

The distance between the bulbs when planting tulips depends on their size and on whether they plan to dig up the plants annually. If tulips are constantly planted and dug up, then the plants can be placed compactly to achieve a decorative effect or at an optimal density of 10-15 cm. When planting with less frequent digging, the minimum distance between large bulbs is about 20 cm. Children are planted at a distance of 5- 15 cm. The optimal planting density is 50 large and up to 100 small tulip bulbs per square meter of planting.

If the tulip bulbs are the same size, then planting is carried out in one step. If large and small bulbs are planted on one site, then at the beginning they install (for planting) larger bulbs, lightly cover them with soil, and then lay out smaller bulbs between them. There can be 2 or 3 such “floors” when planting tulips.

Tulip bulbs are always placed strictly horizontally, bottom down. The planting depth ranges from 10 to 15 cm, but it is better to always use the universal rule and leave a distance between the bottom of the bulb and the soil surface of 3 times the height of the bulb on light and loose soils and 2 times the height of the bulb itself for heavy and dense soils. This guideline will allow you to find the optimal depth individually for each tulip. The maximum depth for tulips is limited to 20 cm. Small bulbs can be scattered, large and medium ones are always installed individually. When planting tulips, you need to act carefully and minimize the pressure on your bulb: pressing, applying force, especially after dressing in fungicide solutions, leads to injuries to the root primordia and even the bottom of the bulb. The tulips are carefully placed, the planting holes are effortlessly filled with soil and compacted by watering rather than compacting.

After planting, tulips are prepared for winter in the same way as plants that were not dug out of the soil, according to general rules.

Tulips are planted in containers and various containers at the same time as in the soil. Plants are planted in autumn in a high-quality, loose, nutritious substrate at an optimal depth, most often in tiers with smaller bulbous crops. Drainage is required. Bulbs in containers are stored in a cool, dark room or carefully covered in the garden. The containers are exposed to light and heat only after the first shoots appear.

Planting tulip bulbs. © gardenerdy

Tulip moisture requirements and watering

Like all bulbs, tulips do not tolerate dampness and waterlogging. But it’s difficult to call them drought-resistant crops. During the active period of development and ripening of the bulb, tulips need stable, light soil moisture, because their extremely rapid development and structural features of the root system require a large supply of moisture and truly regular watering.

In the spring, before budding begins, the plant is watered only in dry weather. Systemic watering for tulips begins only from the budding stage. The classic frequency for a tulip is considered to be 1 abundant watering per week (from 10 to 40 liters of water per square meter of planting), but you should always focus on the condition of the soil at the depth of the roots. Watering is completed not immediately after flowering, but after two weeks, so that the plants do not experience problems with access to moisture during the formation of the replacement bulb.

When watering tulips, you should be careful not to soak the leaves of the plant and water between the rows. Water tulips early in the morning or evening according to standard rules, not with cold water.

Feeding for tulips

It is impossible to grow varietal tulips without fertilizing. In order to admire the luxurious flowers that fully reveal the beauty of each variety, it is necessary to create conditions in which the plants will not lack nutrients. But at the same time, tulips do not like excess fertilizers or accumulation of salts in the soil. Systematic but moderate procedures help to find the “golden mean” in feeding these bulbous plants.

Tulips prefer easily digestible fertilizers dissolved in water. It is possible to scatter mineral fertilizers over the soil, but only in combination with abundant watering and eliminating the risk of any fertilizer particles getting on the leaves, which must be dry, so you need to work very carefully).

Feeding for tulips is applied several times per season:

Early spring

The first fertilizing for tulips is carried out as early as possible, applying fertilizers in the snow or immediately after it melts. For early spring feeding, use a half-reduced portion of complete mineral fertilizers (15-30 g for each square meter of planting). Instead of universal fertilizers, you can use special mixtures for bulbs or tulips, a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers in a ratio of 2:2:1 in an amount of 40-45 g.

At the budding stage

The second fertilizer for tulips is applied at the stage of formation of the flower stem and bud, supporting their normal development. For this feeding, you can use only phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (25-35 g) or a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers with a different ratio - 1: 2: 2.

After flowering

This feeding is carried out to support the development of the daughter bulb and the optimal ripening of the bulbs for the winter. It is advisable to fertilize exactly a week after the plants have finished flowering, but it can also be applied at the peak or end of flowering. For the third fertilizing, only phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are used in the amount of 30-35 g per square meter of soil.

For small tulips and baby bulbs during growing, it is better to limit yourself to just two feedings - in the spring and at the budding stage.

Tulips prefer ammonium nitrate, double and potassium nitrate, complex preparations for bulbous plants containing not only macro-, but also microelements (boron and zinc are especially important for tulips).

Tulips, like many other bulbous plants, themselves signal about improper feeding and nutrient requirements. All three macronutrients are equally important for these bulbs. Therefore, it is impossible to reduce or exclude nitrogen to obtain better flowering in these bulbs. With a lack of nitrogen, tulips become smaller, become narrower and droop, leaf plates lose their elasticity, flower stalks turn red, and the process of bulb replacement is disrupted. If there is a lack of potassium or phosphorus, tulips also signal this with their leaves, along the edges of which a bluish color appears, flowering and the root system suffer. If you take timely measures and carry out additional fertilizing, you can prevent these problems in plant development and prevent the lack of certain nutrients from also affecting flowering and reproduction.

Sprouted tulip bulbs. © vicuschka

Trimmings on tulips

Tulips develop rapidly, but with the end of flowering they also quickly lose their decorative effect. Fading yellowing foliage will not decorate any composition, even in a natural style. But, like all bulbous plants, the leaves of tulips cannot be trimmed or removed until they die on their own, because otherwise the process of storing nutrients and ripening of the bulbs will be disrupted.

In growing varietal tulips, limiting fruiting plays a very important role. The formation of a seed capsule in tulips most often leads to the fact that a full-fledged replacement bulb is not formed; the plant “breaks up” into a nest of very small bulbs that can fully bloom only after a few years. To prevent tulips from becoming smaller, varieties should not be allowed to bear fruit, removing faded flowers in a timely manner after the petals begin to wither.

Trimming tulip flowers is not as simple as it seems:

Cutting for bouquets

It is carried out in the early morning, in a state of tightly closed buds, cutting the stem at an angle. For bouquets, it is preferable to cut off buds that have just begun to color. Store tulips in cool and partial shade; cut sections are renewed under water before placing the plants in water.

Cutting fading flowers

It is better to carry it out immediately after the petals begin to wither and without waiting for complete wilting. Unlike cutting for bouquets, it is better not to cut withered flowers with a sharp knife, but to carefully tear them off with your hands.

Decapitation

Removing buds and preventing flowering from tulips allows you to grow small bulbs or propagate rare varieties more effectively, stimulating the growth of roots and daughter bulbs. Flowers cannot be removed too early: decapitation is carried out a few days after the bud opens.

When cutting flower stalks, you should not remove the leaves. At least two leaves must remain on the stem for the bulbs to fully ripen and form a flower bud.

Additional care for tulips

Important components of tulip care include the following procedures:

Loosening the soil

From the first loosening procedures after the snow melts and the appearance of the first shoots to the procedures after each heavy watering or rain, regular loosening allows you to maintain an optimal environment for tulips and maintain water and breathability of the soil. For tulips, the formation of a soil crust should not be allowed, but the loosening itself should be carried out carefully, trying not to work in close proximity to the bulb.

Weeding tulips

The structural features of tulips require constant weed control. After all, they do not create such a quantity of leaves that would suppress weeds or hide empty soil between plants. Weeds need to be weeded frequently, destroying them at a young age, combining weeding with loosening. For large plantings, you can use special herbicides, but it is better to limit yourself to ordinary mechanical weeding.

Monitoring the development of tulips

Tulips need attention, and it does not always have to be in standard procedures. These bulbs need to be monitored, noticing the first signs of developmental disorders, health problems or uncomfortable conditions. Regular inspection of leaves, flowers, and peduncles will prevent any troubles at an early stage.

The most important procedure in monitoring tulip plantings is considered to be the spring one. After the plants begin to actively develop, they need to be monitored. Typically, the first assessment is made as soon as the soil has warmed and the first shoots have appeared, noting signs of stunted growth and removing plants that do not germinate. At the slightest sign of plant damage by diseases, such specimens are immediately destroyed and removed not only along with the roots, but also along with a fairly large lump of earth. After removing diseased tulips, treat the soil with a fungicide, at least a solution of simple potassium permanganate, to prevent the spread of diseases.

Inspections continue throughout the active growing season and flowering. Specimens affected by viruses and diseases are carefully removed, trying not to damage neighboring plants. A particularly thorough assessment is always carried out after flowering. But if you collect tulips and carefully control their varietal identity, then varietal cleaning should be carried out at the height of flowering, noting questionable specimens and impurities, in order to then separate the plants and restore varietal purity.

Any parts of tulips dug up due to suspected infection, as well as dry parts of plants, are not sent to compost, but destroyed.

Trimming tulip stems and leaves. ©Indie

Digging up tulips and keeping them out of soil

Any varietal tulips allow you to get “guaranteed” luxurious flowering only with annual digging. Varieties with unusual colors and flower shapes are especially capricious. Older varieties of tulips, like plants with “regular” flowers, can be grown not with annual, but with slightly more rare digging. But still, it is not advisable to dig up tulips less than once every 2-4 years. If you do not plan to dig up tulips in the summer, then feeding and planting depth are of particular importance for them.

Tulips are dug up when their leaves begin to turn yellow, but the tulips have not yet completely disappeared. Usually the simplest guidelines for digging are:

elasticity of the stem (it becomes soft and wraps around the finger);
The color of the bulbs themselves (scales) becomes light brown).

But it is quite possible to focus on the beginning of yellowing of the foliage. Early digging is dangerous, because the bulbs are not mature enough and will be stored, bloom, and reproduce worse. Late digging is complicated by the fact that the search for bulbs will turn into a lottery: small bulbs in the nests will “scatter” or deepen. The traditional dates for digging are the third ten days of June and the first ten days of July.

Tulips are carefully dug up, especially those plants whose flowers have been crushed or specimens that have not produced flower stalks at all, which can be considered a signal of either being “pulled” into the ground or being crushed. It is advisable to dig tulips with a large supply of soil in depth to eliminate the risk of damage to even the smallest bulbs. Excavation with analysis of groups and varieties (at least dividing into early, middle and late tulips) will simplify the process of sorting them.

The dug up tulips are scattered into boxes or containers in one or two layers to dry in the shade in a ventilated, cool place. After 1-2 days, they are carefully freed from the soil and cleaned of remnants of roots, old leaves, scales, and unbroken nests are separated. Before sending for storage, it is advisable to pickle the tulips in a fungicide solution in the same way as before planting.

Sorting tulips is a mandatory procedure when growing varieties. Tulips must be grouped not only by variety name, color palette and other flowering characteristics, but also by bulb size. Typically, there are six types of tulips according to the diameter of the bulb: extra size bulbs (from 4 cm), first type (3.5-4 cm), second type (3-3.5 cm), third type (2.5-3. 0 cm), children of the first category (from 1.5 to 2.5 cm) and children of the second category (up to 1.5 cm). But you can use a simplified system of large (from 2.5 cm) and small (less than 2.5 cm) bulbs. If the collection is large, it is better to make your own template for measuring the diameter of the bulbs.

Store tulips in boxes or ventilated drawers in a cool, dark room with good ventilation. It is believed that temperature is almost unimportant for tulips, but in fact, controlling storage temperature allows you to get much better flowering and ripening. Tulips should be stored for a month at an air temperature of 23-25 degrees, then for several weeks, in August, the temperature is lowered to 20 degrees, and before planting in September, the bulbs are kept cool at about 16 degrees Celsius.

During the entire period of storage outside the soil, the bulbs should be regularly inspected and any suspicious or diseased specimens should be discarded.

Wintering tulips

Tulips belong to the frost-resistant bulb family. They do not need protection for the winter, but only if there is a sufficient level of snow. To protect against temperature changes, unstable conditions, and snowless periods, it is better to mulch the plantings.

It is better to use compost, peat, sawdust, straw or humus as mulch for tulips. The optimal shelter height is from 5-8 to 10-15 cm. A mulch layer is created only after stable night frosts have established and the soil begins to freeze.

Removal of mulch in the spring is carried out only after the snow has melted and if leaves or straw were used (organic matter is left on the bed and incorporated into the soil when loosened).

Storing tulip bulbs before planting in the ground. © thebikinggardener

Pests and diseases of tulips

Tulips are the most popular, but far from the hardiest garden bulbs. And for varietal plants, diseases are considered the main cause of bulb loss and plant death. True, it is worth considering that almost always diseases are the result of incorrect selection of conditions or care that does not correspond to the characteristics of the plant, including insufficient vigilance. If you follow the rules of planting and storage, water and fertilize on time, and inspect the bulbs and plants, then the risk of these problems will be minimal.

Very often, tulips suffer from fusarium (it manifests itself in yellowing and drying of leaves and peduncles, browning and drying of bulbs, a weak grayish coating), gray rot (usually on heavy soils, in wet weather it covers the above-ground parts of tulips like a fire), rhizoctonia disease and rhizoctonia (orange-brown spots and stripes).
Also found on tulips:

penicillosis (scales turn yellow, buds and flower stalks rot);
bacteriosis (bulbs rot and turn brown);
variegation (spots and stripes on the leaves, giving the plant originality, but leading to a slowdown in metabolism, delayed development, and rapid yellowing of the greenery);
August disease or necrotic spot (pressed spots on bulbs, brown cracking dry streaks on leaves);
root rot (almost invisible or, if severely spread, leads to dwarfism and loss of decorativeness);
botrytium rot (dull flowers, soft and dark bulbs) and other types of rot.

If the timing of digging and forcing plants is not met, other problems can be observed - drooping peduncles, blind buds, calcareous diseases, gum bleeding, etc.

When tulips are affected by viruses and fungal diseases, the fight is carried out with highly specialized or systemic fungicides, repeated treatment and dressing of the bulbs. But still, the most effective method of control remains the destruction of infected specimens with preventive treatments of other plants.

Pests for tulips are far from uncommon. This plant can be affected not only by root pests - click beetles, mole crickets, onion mites, greenhouse aphids, onion hoverflies, wireworms, purple jays, they love tulips and slugs with snails. It is easy to determine damage from soil pests: the leaves on the plant turn yellow and dry out. Fighting insects is quite difficult. Cutting out damaged parts of the bulb, treating with insecticides, and isolating plants from the rest of the collection can save the plants. But it is usually easier and less risky to destroy damaged bulbs and replace them with new ones.

Tulip propagation

Vegetative methods are the main ones for propagating all tulips. The simplest option is to separate the daughter bulbs and plant them as independent plants. Daughter bulbs are formed in tulips every year, at the base of the scales. When transplanting, the nests are divided and all plants are used as independent ones.

The seed method is used only for plant selection and breeding new varieties, mainly for species of wild tulips; private gardeners use it very rarely. Tulip seedlings bloom only 4, or even 6-7 years after sowing. For the first few years, plants are grown in containers until at least a small bulb is formed, suitable for classical planting in the ground.

You have been growing tulips for a long time without any special problems or care, but suddenly the flowers that delighted you with lush and bright blooms year after year seem to have been replaced: the buds have become small and inconspicuous...
Don’t rush to look for disease or pests; you may have done something wrong... you. By your inaction. After all, tulips love attention not only during flowering.
Why have the tulips become smaller?
The first reason is that you haven’t dug them up for more than three years.
The second reason is improper storage of bulbs.
Third - dug up too early or late...
Tulips also become smaller due to incorrect planting depth, watering and even cutting!
We will discuss in detail how to properly care for tulips so that they do not lose their varietal beauty in our article.

Listen to the article

Planting and caring for tulips

Landing: at the end of September or beginning of October. At the very least, in April.
Excavation: when two thirds of the leaves turn yellow.
Storage: until September in open boxes, laid in one layer, in a room with good ventilation at a temperature of 20˚C, then the storage temperature is reduced to 17˚C.
Lighting: bright sunlight or light partial shade.
Soil: slightly alkaline or neutral, well-drained, fertile and loose sandy loam soil fertilized with ash and compost.
Watering: regular and abundant, especially during budding and flowering: 10 to 40 liters of water are consumed to water 1 m².
Feeding: mineral or organic fertilizers. The first time - in early spring, immediately after emergence, the second time - during budding, the third time - after flowering.
Reproduction: seed and vegetative (daughter bulbs).
Pests: purple cutworms, onion root mites, mole crickets, slugs, mice and moles.
Diseases: gray, white, root, wet and soft rot, variegation and tobacco necrosis viruses (August disease).

Tulip flowers - description

The tulip grows in height from 10 cm to a meter. The root system consists of adventitious roots growing from the bottom of the bulb and dying annually. Young bulbs form hollow stolons - lateral shoots growing to the side or vertically downwards; a daughter bulb is formed at the bottom of the stolons. The stem of the tulip is cylindrical, erect, the leaves are bluish-green due to a light waxy coating, elongated-lanceolate, arranged alternately along the stem. The largest leaf is the bottom one, the smallest (flag leaf) is the top one.

Tulip flowers open in the sun and close at night or in cloudy weather.

A tulip usually has one flower, although there are multi-flowered species and varieties, with 3-5 flowers or more. The flowers are regular, a perianth of six leaflets, six stamens with elongated anthers, most often the tulip flower is red, less often yellow, and even less often white. The color of varietal tulips is much more diverse: red, purple, pure white, yellow, purple and almost black; there are varieties that combine several colors in the most incredible variations.

Flower shape The tulip is also varied: cup-shaped, goblet-shaped, lily-shaped, oval, peony-shaped, star-shaped, fringed... The size of the flower also depends on the variety - sometimes the length is 12 cm, and the diameter is from 3 to 10 cm (at full opening up to 20 cm). The fruit of tulips is a triangular capsule, the seeds in it are triangular, flat, yellow-brown.

In the photo: Tulips blooming

Growing tulips - features

Affects tulips August disease caused by tobacco necrosis virus. The disease is fungal, manifests itself in the form of curvature of the stem and ugly striping of the flower, as well as dark spots on the bulb. Diseased plants should be removed immediately, the hole should be spilled with a strong hot solution of potassium permanganate and boric acid at the rate of 10 g of manganese and 3 g of boric acid per 1 liter of water. You can fill the hole with ash. The remaining plants need to be sprayed with a two percent solution of Fundazol.

Sometimes tulips suffer from fungal diseases - gray, root, white, soft, wet or botrytium rot, especially if the spring was damp and rainy. The reasons may be different, but the preventive measures are the same: ensure good soil drainage, follow all agrotechnical requirements for growing tulips, after digging up the bulbs in the summer before planting them in the fall, sow plants that produce phytoncides (marigolds, calendula, mustard, nasturtium) on the site. . In addition, for prevention purposes, fungicides are used, watering the area with a solution of 20 g per 10 liters of water.

In the photo: Variegation on a tulip

Among the pests that are dangerous to tulips are mole crickets, lilac cutworms, onion root mites, snails, slugs and mouse-like rodents.

Against onion mite They use heat treatment of the bulbs by immersing them in hot (35-40 ºС) water for five minutes. If the infection is discovered already during the growing season, the tulips are sprayed with a two percent solution of Keltan or Rogor, and if this does not give quick results, the diseased specimens have to be dug up and destroyed. After digging up the bulbs from the site, plant tomatoes, radishes or tagetes on it - these plants are resistant to mites.

Purple armyworm afraid of dusting the lower leaves of plants with mothballs.

For mole cricket, snails And slugs scatter traps around the area: rags, pieces of plywood or slate, under which they like to crawl, and collect insects every day and destroy them. For mole crickets, you can dig glass jars into the soil and fill them with water not to the very top: the insects fall into the water and cannot get out.

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Many gardeners grow tulips in a pot at home to please their significant other on March 8th or to profit from the further sale of flowers.

In most cases, such plants develop in a flower bed, but early flowering can be obtained by planting the bulbs in ordinary pots in winter.

Our article will be devoted to the process of growing tulips in flowerpots.

Description

Depending on the chosen variety, the height of the tulip can vary from 10 centimeters to 1 meter. The root part of this plant consists of adventitious roots that develop and die every year.

The stem of the flower is erect and cylindrical in shape. The leaves are elongated, lanceolate, green with a barely noticeable waxy coating. The largest leaf is considered to be the lower one, the largest leaf blade is located in the upper part of the crop.

Please note: Most varieties of tulips have only one inflorescence, but in some species three to five flowers can form simultaneously.

The inflorescences are white, yellow or red, consist of 6 petals and the same number of stamens. In hybrid varieties, the color is slightly different; in this case, the flowers can be purple or violet.

Tulip petals also have different shapes:

cup-shaped;
star-shaped;
fringed;
oval;
lily-shaped.

The size of the blossoming inflorescence also depends on the variety. If the length of a flower can reach up to 12 centimeters, then the diameter of the inflorescence ranges from 3...10 centimeters. Tulips usually open in cloudy weather and finish blooming at nightfall or in unfavorable weather conditions.

For home growing

London variety

The choice of tulips is actually huge, but not all varieties are suitable for growing at home in a pot. The most adapted crops include:

London;
Oxford;
Parade Record;
Aristocrat;
Negrita;
Scarborough;
Confux;
Diplomat.

Important to know: Low plants are ideal for growing at home. Such crops are undemanding in care and have good disease resistance.

Tulip bulbs can be bought at any specialty store or prepared from your own planting material. There are some nuances to using your own seeds:

Their flowers need careful care during the development period.
Bulbs are dug up in the spring after the tulips have faded during the period when the stems turn yellow.
The largest bulbs are selected for storage and further planting.

When drying seed material, the following temperature regime must be observed. In the first week of storage, the room temperature is set at 34 degrees. In the next two months, temperatures are reduced to +23 degrees.

In the next third month, the temperature is again reduced to +17 degrees. After some time, the bulbs are placed in a gauze bag and placed in the refrigerator. In this state, the seed material is stored until planting.

Preparatory work for forcing bulbs

Winter growing of tulips involves using forcing technology.

During the main work, the gardener must bring the temperature and humidity, as well as lighting, as close as possible to natural conditions.

The main work on growing tulips at home is carried out in the following sequence:

Planting of bulbs occurs in the last ten days of September.
To grow flowers, choose flowerpots up to 15 centimeters deep.
You can buy the soil mixture or prepare it yourself. It consists of one part humus and river sand and two parts turf soil. To enrich the soil with microelements, a little wood ash is added to its composition.
We inspect the bulbs for the presence of diseases, immerse the planting material for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection.
We place drainage in pots and fill them with a nutrient mixture.
We lay the bulbs on the surface of the soil, maintaining a distance of 1 centimeter.
We fill the planting material with soil.
We water the soil.
We move the pots to a dark, but damp and cool room. The temperature in this place should not exceed +9 degrees, humidity is within 80%.

Please keep in mind: The bulbs must be cooled before planting, which will stimulate intensive development of the crop.

Further care of flowers consists of additional watering. The soil must be moistened at least once a week.

How to achieve flowering

A few weeks after sowing, the first shoots will begin to appear from the pots. When the height of the leaves reaches 6 or 7 centimeters, they are transferred to a bright room and gradually begin to accustom them to sunlight.

In the room it is necessary to achieve optimal air humidity (about 80%). Such indicators can be obtained by periodically spraying plants.

When growing flowers at home, you must follow the following rules:

plants should not be exposed to direct sunlight;
it is necessary to protect vegetative crops from drafts;
pots are kept away from heating radiators;
To moisten the soil, settled liquid is used at a temperature of 18-22 degrees.
It is advisable to cut flowers in the morning near the surface of the ground.

Gardener's advice: For the first time after moving, the flowers should be covered with a paper cap. The temperature also needs to be increased gradually to +18 degrees in two days. When growing tulips in winter, artificial supplementary lighting may be necessary.

It is not recommended to use the bulb for re-forcing tulips, but the planting material can be restored in open ground. In this regard, after flowering ends, it is necessary to cut the bulb and reduce watering.

After the leaves turn yellow, the bulbs are removed from the soil and dried. Planting material is stored in the basement, where the temperature is set to +18 degrees.

Growing tulips yourself in winter is quite simple, but to do this you must follow the rules described above. With proper care, these flowers will delight the hostess with colorful inflorescences and long-lasting flowering.

How to properly plant tulips in pots, see the following video:

Hello, dear friends!

Today we will talk about the features growing tulips, about how they differ from others

There is no garden where tulips do not bloom and already in April their pointed seedlings pierce the melting snow - leaves begin to grow.

And after 20-30 days they bloom and we can admire their luxurious blooms for up to 35 days.

To make it easy and enjoyable, you need to follow a number of simple rules.

Growing rules

Immediately at the beginning of spring, as soon as the snow melts (or even better in the snow), you need to feed the tulips with chemical fertilizers - 15-30 g per 1 m 2 , but no more. When applying fertilizers, try not to forget that tulips do not grow well at high concentrations of salts in the soil and, therefore, you should apply only half the dose recommended for bulbous crops. I usually feed tulips with nitroammophoska or special fertilizers for garden flowers: the first feeding is in the snow, the second is at the beginning of budding, the third is a week after flowering.

Based on the appearance of tulips, you can determine which elements are missing in the soil. For example, if there is not enough nitrogen, then the leaf blades of a tulip become narrow and are no longer able to maintain a vertical position. The stems and leaves, at the same time, gradually acquire a red tint. If there is a lack of potassium and phosphorus in the soil, a blue-green color appears along the edges of the tulip leaves.

The main spring care for tulips involves removing diseased plants, along with the bulb, roots and surrounding soil. In this case, the hole is filled with a solution of potassium permanganate, which is sometimes recommended to be heated to a temperature of 70-100 o C.

All agricultural practices - loosening, weeding, fertilizing, removing diseased and viral plants - must be carried out very carefully in order not to damage the leaves and roots of healthy plants, because they are the ones who “feed” the bulb.

Tulips have leaves, stems, flowers growing very quickly, and even underground there is active work to increase the size of the daughter bulb and grandchild bulbs are being laid. And this explains their short life span. These rapid processes require large amounts of nutrients and moisture in the soil. Therefore, during the period of budding and flowering, especially in the absence of rain, it is necessary to regularly water the plants. And also in order to get a properly formed large replacement bulb, you need to water the tulips for another two weeks after flowering.

In order to get large flowers in the second year and so that the bulb does not break up into small bulbs, you must not allow the seed capsule to appear - when the flower begins to fade, you need to immediately remove it (tear it off with your hands, and not cut it with a knife). In this case, be sure to leave at least two leaves on the stem, because the future flower and bulb will feed on them.

Tulips love sun and well-drained, light soil. As a rule, bulbs are dug up every year, but if you plant the tulips deeper and remember to feed them during growth and after flowering, they can grow in one place for several years. I replant tulips after 3-4 years.

In June, as soon as the leaves begin to turn yellow, dig up the bulbs, dry them in the shade and store them in boxes until autumn, labeling them with the name of the variety. Tulip bulbs do not tolerate direct sunlight and, therefore (I want to repeat again) they must be dried in the shade, in a well-ventilated place.

In September it's time to plant tulips in the garden beds. To do this, we make trenches 30 cm wide and about 20 cm deep. Pour superphosphate onto the bottom. Attention! I remind you that under no circumstances should you apply manure under tulips (as well as under all bulbous plants), as this leads to rotting of the bulbs. First, place large onions in trenches, bottom down, and lightly sprinkle with soil. Then we plant smaller ones between them and sprinkle them again, and place the babies around the edges. Cover the top with the remaining soil. With this planting, the beds look more decorative in spring and there is no need to dig up tulips every year.

In winters with little snow, severe soil freezing to a depth of 20 cm is possible. If tulips survive soil freezing temperatures down to minus 4 o C without consequences and bloom normally in the spring, then freezing to minus 9 o C is fraught with various deformations of the flower. Therefore, after the first frost, when the soil freezes at night and thaws during the day, it is better to cover the tulip plantings with peat, humus, sawdust or straw with a layer of 10-15 cm.

Diseases and pests

If the tulip bulbs have sprouted, but the leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out, then we can talk about a plant disease. Very often, diseases spread after damage by both onion root mites, mole crickets, click beetles, and mechanical ones.

Symptoms fusarium rot (fusarium) are: sudden yellowing and drying of the above-ground part of the plant, the bulbs begin to turn brown and dry, a weak grayish coating of mycelium with spores appears.

Penicillium rot manifests itself as follows: the scales on the surface of the bulb begin to turn yellow and then dense bluish-green sporulation quickly grows. Rotting begins with flower buds and peduncles and very often the bulb rots completely.

Bacterial rot (bacteriosis) develops mainly as a result of damage by the root onion mite, which feeds on the bottom and young roots of the onion; sometimes the disease is also provoked by nematodes. With this disease, the bulbs turn brown and rot, and an unpleasant odor appears.

One of the most common and dangerous viral diseases of tulips is considered variegation virus. Outwardly, it appears on the petals of tulips in the form of various stripes and specks, which often look decorative and unusual. However, the virus affects all parts of the plant, slows down metabolic processes, provokes a delay in flowering and early yellowing of the leaves.

Or maybe you have your own interesting secrets in growing tulips, dear readers? Share with us!

A striking representative of the Liliaceae family are tulips. These spring flowers, which have a special aroma, are often driven out by March 8th. In order to grow bulbs at home, during an unusual period of the year, you need to know all the intricacies of this process: from choosing a variety to feeding.

Article outline

When is the best time to plant bulbs?

The timing of plant forcing is strongly influenced by its biological characteristics. For the success of the event, by the time of planting in the ground, the planting material must already have formed all the organs of the future flower. The inside of the bulbs should also contain an optimal amount of useful elements. Based on this, you should choose a soil substrate only of high-quality and large specimens, weighing at least 25 grams.

For the convenience of calculating the exact timing of planting bulbs in a pot, there is a simple technology where two main periods should be taken into account:

The first includes planting and the process of rooting the material. The optimal temperature at this stage is 5-8 degrees. Depending on the varietal characteristics, the duration of this time period can vary from 16 to 22 weeks.
The second involves keeping the emerging sprouts in comfortable conditions at a temperature of 12-15 degrees. Light intensity should be in a moderate range. The duration of this period (before the formation of buds) varies between 3-4 weeks.

By adding these two stages, it is possible to calculate the flowering period when kept indoors. This is how they distinguish:

Early, when tulips bloom in late December or early January. Forcing flowers coincides with the New Year holidays
Mid-early, in which flowering coincides with the Christmas holidays.
Medium, allows you to grow flower crops for Valentine's Day.
Late, makes it possible to prepare the bouquet by March 8th.

How to choose a variety for winter planting

The market offers a fairly large assortment of flowers from the Liliaceae family with different forcing periods. Among the most popular varieties are:

Bridge Mize, Christmas Marvel, Diamond Star. These are plants with an early flowering period; the process of formation of the primordia of peduncles is 10-16 weeks. They reach a height of 30-40 cm, and the size of their buds does not exceed 8 cm. The advantage of such tulips is the formation of flowers in the shape of a bowl or glass.
Darwinian hybrids. Flowers with medium and mid-early forcing attract attention with the height of the buds - 12 cm, and the height of the plant itself - 60-80 cm. But given the large size of the flowers, only experienced gardeners can cope with them.
Triumph, Temple of Beauty, Negrita, Aristocrat. Late-flowering specimens of class 5 are capable of growing up to 75 cm. The height of the flowers is no more than 10 cm, their shape resembles a bowl in appearance.

The process of growing tulips

Often, novice gardeners do not dare to grow tulips at home in winter, considering this activity as something difficult. But if you adhere to a certain technology, success will be guaranteed.

Preparatory activities

You should start preparing the bulbs in the summer season, when tulips grow in your summer cottage. For subsequent forcing, you will need exceptionally healthy and strong specimens; they are provided with proper care throughout the entire growing season. After harvesting, the bulbs are kept indoors at a temperature of 25 degrees for 30 days. Then these indicators are reduced by 3-5 degrees (August-September).

Planting work

The bulbs selected for planting are placed in fertile soil substrate with a neutral acidity level. The planting date will be determined by the planned period of bud formation. In a suitable container, the material is placed at a distance of 5-10 mm from each other, the bulbs are slightly buried and irrigated. The container with planted tulips is placed in a room with cool air, where the temperature is at least 9 degrees. This stage of flower forcing lasts 16-22 weeks.

The next step will be to transfer the container with future flowers to a room where the temperature is maintained within 12-15 degrees. Such conditions are necessary to avoid stress that overtakes bulbous crops with a sharp change in temperature. The lighting should not be too bright. In addition, you should know that the sooner the tulips are warm, the faster the flowering phase will begin. Containers should be moved to a warm room when the sprouts are 5-7 cm high.

Subtleties of selecting planting material

It is necessary to select bulbs for forcing from your own planting material. Suitable specimens must be cleaned of the husk covering them and the smooth shell inspected. High-quality bulbs should not contain hidden cuts, any damage, or signs of disease. In addition, peeled bulbs are more effectively fixed in the soil substrate and quickly absorb moisture and nutritional compounds.

Before planting in prepared soil, it is recommended to soak the bulbs in a working solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes. To prepare it you will need several dark purple crystals and 0.5 liters of water. Thanks to this procedure, it is possible to save future flowers from diseases. Alternatively, you can use a container of water whose temperature is 40 degrees. Soaking time of the material is 5 minutes.

Which substrate is best for planting tulips?

For forcing flowers from the Liliaceae family, it is advisable to use an earth mixture with a sufficient level of moisture and air permeability, and acidity levels in the range of 6.5-7.0. Based on the practice of Dutch flower growers, the crop can be grown in river sand, but sand mixtures using peat, soil, and sawdust are also suitable. Perlite has proven itself well.

At home, it is effective to prepare a soil substrate from soil, manure and humus in a ratio of 2:1:1. For fertility, you can add another handful of wood ash - this is an excellent fertilizer for tulips. What is not recommended to do is to use soil from greenhouses, where there is a high probability of the presence of pathogenic microorganisms and fungal spores.

If peat or sawdust is used, it is necessary to treat with lime mortar. It is good to take sawdust from steamed hardwood. To grow blooming tulips, you need to monitor the seedlings; they should grow evenly and not stretch out.

Rules for planting bulbs

Having decided on the soil, we begin planting tulips:

Drainage is placed at the bottom of the container, and holes must also be provided to drain excess moisture.
The containers are filled with soil substrate.
Bury the bulbs, but not too deep.
Water with a solution of calcium nitrate (20 g of product per 10 liters of water).
Add soil as needed after moistening.
The container is placed in a room where the temperature is maintained at up to 10 degrees.

The duration of the rooting period is 22 weeks.

Tulips in a pot at home

During the growing process, bulbs need proper organization of the irrigation system. Particular attention should be paid to humidity; it should be at least 80%. It is supported until mid-December. Then the temperature is lowered by 2-4 degrees, this way it is possible to prevent the sprouts from stretching. 1.5 months before the flowering phase begins, containers with plants should be placed in a room with a temperature of 15 degrees.

At first, in warm weather, while the flowers go through an adaptation period, dim light should be used. If there are specimens that have grown poorly, they are covered with cardboard caps. And after 2-3 days the temperature is increased to 18 degrees. You can prevent the stems from stretching by installing fluorescent lamps; they are turned on every day for 5-6 hours.

When carrying out early forcing, there is no need to germinate tulips, since such plantings do not have the ability to form a full-fledged bulb. This technique is only relevant for short-growing species. The idea is to remove both flowers and leaves from the stem and remove them from the ground after three weeks. This makes it possible to obtain medium-sized material.

Upon completion of forcing, leaf blades are left on the stems and the flowers are cut off. They are watered for 21 days, and then dug out of the ground. Most of the bulbous plants respond to this method of maintenance and direct all their efforts to the formation of a new viable bulb. The dug up specimens are first dried at a temperature of 24 degrees for 14 days, kept at 15-20 degrees for the next 30 days, and at 15 degrees until planting.

The quality of the bulbs depends on the correct maintenance of them after forcing. They are planted in the ground at the usual time and provided with standard care. The germination rate of bulbs for March varieties is 30%. If you use early flowering varieties for growing, the effect will be weak: the children are small, they will begin to bloom only after 3-4 years.

Growing tulips at home in winter is quite possible even for novice gardeners. The main thing is to know how to care for tulips at all stages of their growth and development. Only maintaining optimal temperature, humidity level, and lighting will make it possible to achieve the appearance of bright buds in winter. And you should not save on planting material, because the result depends on it.