Posted on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by admin in Bulbs |

Tulip Beds: Extend Your Flowering Season

“It comes so slowly and goes so fast…”

In our region, we often seem to go from dead-of-winter to blazing summer in a matter of weeks. Keeping spring-flowering bulbs going as long as possible is a real challenge, but with a little ingenuity, you can have a fine display right into early June. The secret is good planning and preparation, and the time to begin is right now!

First, select a good location for your bulb bed. Choose an area of light, well-drained, fertile soil. Ideally, a bed placed to the north or northeast of a stand of trees, far enough away to avoid the heaviest roots, but near enough to benefit from the cooling, dappled shade of early spring is best for extending bloom. Design generous-sized beds—at least 4 feet wide—to allow for a solid, massed planting of bulbs, rather than narrow, straight rows.

To plant a Triple-Decker bed, you’ll need to excavate the entire bed to a depth of 8 inches, removing the soil and reserving it for later. As the soil is removed, work in plenty of rotted manure, bone meal, compost, and if necessary, sand. Level off the bottom of the bed and loosen it slightly with a rake or cultivator. Sprinkle in a layer of bone meal or bulb-food and begin planting.

My own Triple-Decker tulip bed carpets the ground around several fine old flowering crabs. There is an ever-changing palette throughout the spring; beginning with a fiery splash of early color provided by Kaufmannianas in mid-March; gradually mellowing out with a succession of Single and Double Earlies and Darwin Hybrids that pick up the colors of the flowering crabs; then finishing off with cool-colored Single Lates that foreshadow and complement the flowering of a nearby lilac hedge.

Plan carefully for both color and bloom time. You’ll be planting from the bottom up, the Darwins and Single Lates going in first at the 8-inch depth; followed by the Single and Double Earlies at about 7 inches; and finally, the Kaufmannianas at 6 inches.

To further extend the blooming period of each variety, you can also “stagger” the planting between layers. In other words, half the Darwins at 8 inches, half at 7 inches; half the Kaufmannianas at 6, half at 7. The deeper bulbs (within reason) will bloom later; shallower bulbs, earlier. By staggering the layers you’ll avoid bare periods if one variety fades before the next is fully open.

To get the succession of color I wanted for around my crabapple orchard, I chose a variety of hot-to-warm-to-cool shades. Known as `water lily tulips’, flaming red and hot pink Kaufmannianas start the show off with a bang at a time when everyone needs a visual lift from winter’s drabness. `Heart’s Delight’, `Showwinner’, `Shakespeare’, `Ancilla’, `Stresa’, and `Cherry Orchard’ are top picks here. “Kaufs” are short, sturdy tulips, growing only about 6 inches high. They’re very hardy, naturalize well, and prefer to be left alone. In Zone 6, they can make their appearance quite early, just after the first crocus. Most Kaufs have the added benefit of “flamed” petals, which are a different color inside and out; on cloudy days, when the cups are closed, the bed will be a slightly different shade than on a sunny day when the cups are wide open.

Single and Double Early tulips start to come on strong just as the Kaufmannianas fade, and just as the crabs begin to set their cerise-colored buds. A nice mix of red and deep pink from `Beauty Queen’, `Christmas Marvel’, `Abba’, `Electra’, and `Peach Blossom’ provides a graceful transition from the more fiery shades of the Kaufs, and picks up the emerging color of the trees. Early tulips are about 12 to 14 inches tall, and are often quite sweetly scented—a bonus, since most tulips are either scentless or only very subtly fragrant.

As the Earlies pass, the “Queen of the Tulips,” the Darwin Hybrids, take center stage. Darwins are big and sturdy, standing 24 inches tall, with magnificent chalice-shaped cups—the classic tulip. Their statuesque height and large blooms perfectly mask the by-now petal-less Kaufmannianas and the fading Earlies. Since Darwins make their appearance just about the time the crabs reach full flower, I chose a selection of carmines, fragile pinks, and silvery whites to complement the trees. `Pink Jewel’, `Tender Beauty’, `Pink Impression’, `Ollioules’, `Cream Jewel’, and the silvery-pink `Elizabeth Arden’ all work spectacularly well here.

The Triple-Decker bed makes its curtain call with the appearance of the Single Late tulips—a late-flowering form of the Darwins, with all the prepossessing height and vigor of their sisters. Because they open about lilac-time, I chose a selection of lavender and ivory shades as well as pinks to round out a full season of bloom that extends from early March to late May: `Esther’, `Aristocrat’, `Menton’, `Dreamland’, and `Sorbet’ in pink; `Bleu Aimable’, `Dreaming Maid’, `Lafayette’, for lavender; and `Anne Frank’, in pristine white.

To get a really solid bed of color, plant tulips close—no more than 4 inches apart— up to 40 per square yard for Earlies, Darwins, and Lates; as many as 60 per square yard for smaller Kaufs. To mask fading foliage at the end of the season, an interplanting of colorful, spreading annuals like petunias is ideal. I usually leave “holes” in the planting bed specifically for these “masking” plants. Remember, no matter how bad it looks, that dying foliage is essential to the tulip’s health. Cutting or even tying or braiding the foliage in an effort to hide it will vastly weaken the bulb’s ability to store enough nutrients for next year’s bloom. Remove dead foliage only after it is completely yellowed and withered, never before. As an added aid to conserving the bulb’s energy, snip off the top inch or two of stem after the petals have fallen to prevent the formation of seed pods.

To keep your tulips going strong for years, keep in mind the five primary reasons most perennial bulbs fail after the first season: water-logged soil; inadequate sunshine; too shallow planting; too early planting; and premature removal of fading foliage.

Give your tulips what they need and they’ll reward you with years of faithful flowering.