September draws to a close, and despite the school term being well under way, I'm still slightly cold turkey after my holiday abroad. On the bright side, the advantage of running one's own (very small) business is that you don't return to an email inbox groaning with a four digit number of unread messages. I am, however, always sucked in by the seductive messages from numerous and various bulb companies imploring me to order quickly whilst stocks last.
The non-perennial nature of cultivated tulips frustrates me, and has, to date, prevented me bothering to replace those that I planted during the first couple of autumns in our current house. As a consequence, the garden has a real gap in colour between the daffodils finishing and the alliums kicking off, and tulips are really the best solution for plugging it. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to visit the Keukenhof Tulip Garden in the Netherlands, and although it was towards the end of the season, there was still plenty there to remind me that tulips are just, well, fab, and I really want them back in my garden again.
Wild tulips tend to be small, modest, and are native to central Asia, the Caucasus region; places such as Turkey, Jordan, Afganistan and Kurdistan. Their natural climate is very cold winters and hot, dry summers. They are unsuited to our damp, mild winters and increasingly wet summers. The majority of cultivated tulip bulbs sold today are marketed for their impressive, showy blooms, and are really intended to support the cut flower industry, or to be treated as annual bedding; after flowering once, you're supposed to lift them and banish them to the compost heap.
I'm an extremely lazy gardener and loath the waste associated with annual bedding plants. In my opinion, repetitive planting and lifting efforts should be kept to a minimum, and the chances of repeat flowering maximised. But how? There are three key ways that can help to optimise repeat flowering;
Select a more perennial species;
Botanical or 'species' varieties of tulip multiply or 'naturalise' each year, if left to go to seed after flowering. They tend to be dainty, delicate, about 10-15cm in height, but hardy and long-lasting. They are particularly well-suited to rockeries and gravel gardens. Species or botanical tulip varieties include Tulipa turkestanica, Tulipa hageri, Tulipa saxatilis and Tulipa sylvestris.
Kaufmanniana and Greigii tulips are mostly red or yellow, sometimes with two-tone petals, and often have mottled or striped foliage. They are early flowerers and, although taller than the species tulips, are close to their Turkish ancestors so flower relatively reliably, year after year. Sizing up, cultivated Fosteriana tulips, such as 'Emperor' and 'Purissima' also remain close to their Central Asian ancestors, and perennialise fairly well.
Darwin hybrid tulips are a cross between single late tulips and early emperor tulips and are the classic cultivated tulip height and shape. If planted correctly, they should give two or three years' of repeat flowering. They also have the added advantage of being tolerant of partial shade.
Viridiflora tulips have green petals, green petal-edges, or green flames or strips on their petals. This additional chlorophyll enables tham to optimise photosythesis and ensure that the bulbs are sufficiciently replenished during the flowering season to perennialise going forward. Viridiflora varieties to look up include; Tulipa 'Artist', Tulip 'China Town', Tulipa 'Esperanto' and Tulipa 'Spring Green'.
Plant your tulips correctly;
Tulips like fertile, well-drained soil that is neutral or mildly acidic, and receives at least six hours of sunlight a day;
Plant in November or early December;
Plant bulbs deeply, at least four-times the depth of the bulb itself, but ideally 25-30 cm. This prevents any offsets or bulbils forming, putting up foliage and robbing the parent bulb of nutrients;
Planting deeply also provides protection from frosts, reduces the chances of squirrels lifting the bulbs, and gives you the option to plant shallow-rooted annuals on top of them, in the summer.
If your soil is heavy clay, it may be waterlogged at the required planting depth, and your tulips may perennialise best in raised beds;
Add some grit at the bottom of each planting hole, to assist with drainage;
Fertilise your bulbs at planting time with bulb fertiliser, and add mycorrhizae to the soil, to assist root growth and development.
Cover newly planted areas with chicken wire to deter the squirrels, until the soil settles.
Continue to care for your tulips both during and after flowering;
Apply fertiliser or compost in the spring, just as they stop blooming;
Leave species tulips to set seed and naturalise;
Don't cut Darwin, Fosteriana or Viridiflora tulips to put in vases or bouquets; remove dead heads but leave the foliage and stems for at least six weeks. The photosynthesis of the residual leaves will help replenish the bulb for next year's blooms;
Make sure bulbs don't get too much moisture in the summer; ideally plant the bulbs in areas that don't need additional watering during the summer season.