Tips on Buying and Planting Tulip Bulbs

It's almost tulip planting time. After all, autumn really is just around the corner. Although it's too early to plant tulips and other fall bulbs, the time to start planning is here and now. Whether you order tulip bulbs from one of the many mail order catalogs or pick them out at a local garden center - keep a few things in mind when choosing and planting tulip bulbs.

When buying tulip bulbs in person, it's much easier to inspect and judge the quality of the bulbs. On the other hand, when you purchase tulip bulbs at a local garden center or nursery, the selection is much more limited. Although the standard shape of the tulip flower will always be special to me, the varieties of tulip flowers stretch far beyond the standard variety that was my favorite kind of flower to draw when I was a little girl. I plastered my amateur tulips on every piece of paper I could find. Now I'd much rather admire the real tulip flowers blooming in a garden.

With quality in mind, never order tulip bulbs or any other plants from mail order or Internet without doing research on the company. There's information available at popular gardening sites and forums to find out if a company has a high rate of customer satisfaction (or lack of). Gardeners enjoy helping one another and gladly share their knowledge. Try Dave's Garden for a vast array of gardening information and mail order resources. There you'll find a "watchdog" list of mail order companies that are rated by the members' experiences.

The best way to judge the health of tulip bulbs is by their appearance. The bulbs should be fresh looking without any moldy spots on them. The bulbs should be consistently smooth - no strange lumps or mushy areas. Choose bulbs that feel heavy for their size. After handling several of the tulip bulbs, you'll be able to tell which bulbs are weighty and don't feel hollow or airy. Most will have the papery outer layer (like the skin of an onion) still attached, but it's perfectly fine without it.

Now that you have healthy tulip bulbs in hand, there are a few things to keep in mind. If it's still too early to plant the bulbs, store them in a cool, dry place. Ideally, the best temperature for storing the tulip bulbs is between 50 to 70 degrees. If it's still hot in your climate, then remember how hot the garage is going to get during the day and consider an interior air-conditioned space instead. Don't store the bulbs near fruits and vegetables. The ethylene gas they emit can cause the tulips not to produce flowers.

Plant the tulip bulbs after the first frost in organically rich soil that has good drainage. The area should get full sun in the spring when the tulips emerge. Don't plant them in an area that stays wet in the summer. The size of the tulip will determine the planting depth. For large tulips, plant the bulbs 8 to 10 inches deep. Small varieties of tulip bulbs need only be planted about 4 to 6 inches deep. Remember that mulch is taken into consideration for the depth of planting bulbs. If you use a 4 to 6 inch layer of mulch, then compensate for the depth of mulch by planting the bulbs more shallow.