Tulip bulbs are well worth planting in your garden!
Tulips are one of the easiest plants to grow and provide beautiful spring colour, quickly brightening up the garden. They come in so many colours it will be hard to decide what to plant!
The first step is to decide how many tulips you want. Put down small stakes or several strings about 15 inches apart if you are planting them individually, otherwise put marks where each row will go with twine tied to canes or stakes at either end. Each tulip has a number printed on the side which corresponds with a large bag of bulbs that contains 1000 tulips – 400 bulbs per 100 feet. Two hundred fifty tulips planted every 15 inches will give you about 200 stems, so plan on 250 tulips for every 100 feet. If you are planting in rows instead of individual plants – allow double the space between bulbs because they are clumping and should be planted 10 inches apart, so one stem will fill up 20 inches!
You can’t plant them too early either. The colder it is, the better! Just make sure that they receive at least 8 hours of sunlight, preferably more. It’s important that the soil isn’t too cold or dry or wet either because then they won’t grow properly. The bulb sprouts only when the ground warms up enough to let it sprout, which takes time depending on where you live. speed things along with place black plastic over the soil. It gets really hot under that plastic and helps the sprout come up a lot faster!
Don’t be too hasty to plant tulips in your garden if you want to make a beautiful display. Tulips take about seven years to reach their full potential, so wait until your seventh year of planting before making a big show of them!
You can tell whether or not bulbs are good by knocking on them – if they sound hollow inside then it’s a dud, but if they’re solid then it’s worth planting. Also, look out for soft spots or even green buds. These will never grow into anything nice! Be careful though because sometimes bugs get into the bulb and eat holes into it which causes other problems later.
Autumn is the time to plant bulbs!
As autumn approaches, homeowners are getting ready to plant their tulip bulbs. With this in mind, armed with a large bag, you can start preparing your flower beds for the new season. Bulbs are all very well and good when they’re kept indoors in pots where they can be seen, but ultimately they need to go into the ground so that they can develop roots.