Tulips in a pot at home. Spring flower bed on the balcony - how to plant tulips in pots. How to grow tulips from bulbs at home: cutting features

Imagine how surprised your guests will be when they see that you grow tulips at home! In spring, green stems with exquisite buds of a wide variety of colors look unusually impressive against the background of white snow outside the window. Delicate bulbous flowers grown on the windowsill will not only become a source of pride for you, but will also brighten up the long wait for spring.

Tulips suitable for home growing

It cannot be said that growing tulips at home is a simple task, accessible even to a child. Despite the unpretentiousness of this crop, it is necessary to follow certain rules when planting bulbs and provide the growing tulips with proper care throughout the growing season. Then the results will be pleasing to the eye.

If you are seriously interested in how to grow tulips at home, you will have to stock up on containers for flowers, prepare a substrate, choose a suitable place where the tulips will grow comfortably, and start planting the bulbs at a favorable time. Our article will help you do everything right and avoid mistakes.

Not all tulips grow well at home. Of course, it would be very tempting to grow tulips of unusual colors on the windowsill - brown, blue, purple, black, etc. However, exotic varieties are quite capricious, so for home grown it is better to use proven varieties: Aristocrat, Christmas Marvel, Oxford, Apricot Beauty, Parade, Fringe Elegance, Diamond Star, Diplomat, Lustige Battle, Miles Bridge, Negrita, Confux, London, Temple of Beauty, Apeldoorn, Eric Hofsier, Scarborough. Even novice gardeners can easily cope with growing this unpretentious variety, How Parade Record(Darwinian hybrids).

When choosing tulips for growing at home, you should give preference low-growing varieties, which are distinguished by their resistance to diseases (especially variegation), unpretentiousness to growing conditions and are able to tolerate minor disturbances during care.

Purchased planting material is already completely ready for forcing - the bulbs are sorted and processed, so they can be planted immediately. If you decide to independently prepare planting material from tulips growing in the garden bed, you will need to provide them with careful care throughout the entire growing season: feed, water, loosen the soil and destroy weeds. In this case, you need to dig up the plants as soon as the tulip stems begin to turn yellow.

From the dug up bulbs, select the largest ones and send them to dry dry room. In this case, you need to maintain the following temperature regime: the first week +34 °C, then two months +23 °C, and the last month +17 °C. After which, the planting material must be placed for cooling in a box or gauze bag on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator (or in the basement), where it is stored until planting at a temperature of +5 ° C.

Planting tulips at home - step-by-step instructions

Growing tulips at home is based on forcing technology: plants artificially create conditions similar to natural ones. In this case, special attention is paid to cooling the bulbs, because in nature they form shoots and flowers only after they have gone through the winter rest stage. Another thing is that the technology of forcing due to control temperature conditions allows you to receive fresh flowers in the middle of winter or in early spring- at the request of the flower growers.

So, the bulbs are ready for planting, it’s time to figure out how to plant tulips at home:

you can start planting at the end of September;
prepare pots or bowls at least 15 cm deep;
mix the substrate from the river stove, turf soil and humus (1: 2: 1), add a little to the substrate wood ash or buy a ready-made soil mixture with good water permeability and neutral reaction;
Before planting, inspect the bulbs again from all sides for diseases and dip them in a solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour;
put drainage in bowls or pots for tulips (you can use sphagnum moss) and fill the container with substrate so that there is a distance to the edge three times greater than the height of one bulb;
Place the planting material on top of the ground, bottom down, one centimeter apart;
Cover the bulbs with substrate up to the tops;
water and add soil mixture if the tops of the bulbs appear from the ground;
transfer the pots with plantings to a dark room where the humidity is 80% and the temperature is not higher than + 9 °C.

Plantings should not be left unattended - make sure that the soil does not dry out, but also does not become moldy. Weekly watering will be sufficient.

How to get tulips to bloom and prolong it

After a few weeks, you will notice that the bulbs in the pots have sprouted. As soon as the seedlings reach a height of 6-7 cm, it is time to move them into the room and gradually accustom them to daylight, covering them with a paper cap at first. It is advisable that the temperature also rises gradually, over two to three days to +18 °C. With more high temperature tulips at home will form weak, thin peduncles, and the plants may even be damaged by fusarium.

If you grow tulips at home in winter, provide them with artificial light for ten hours, otherwise the stems will become very elongated and the color of the flowers will be pale.

With the appearance of colored buds, it is recommended to move the pot with tulips closer to the cold glass of the window, since at lower temperatures the flowering period extends and you will be able to admire the delightful blooming of tulips longer.

To extend the flowering period, it is also advisable to take pots of tulips out onto the balcony at night and spray the leaves during the day warm water(without getting on the flowers). The air humidity level required for tulips is about 80%. The soil should also be constantly slightly moist.

Important subtleties:

The bright sun should not shine on the tulips;
protect plants from drafts;
keep flower pots as far as possible from radiators central heating;
It is recommended to use settled water for irrigation room temperature;
cut home tulips close to the surface of the earth, early in the morning before watering.

After growing at home, the bulb is greatly depleted and can no longer be used for the same purpose, but it can be planted in a garden bed - in open ground the bulbs will recover, and the next year the tulips will bloom again (but in the flowerbed). Therefore, with the end of flowering, the buds of home tulips are broken off and watering is gradually reduced until the leaves turn yellow, then the bulbs are dug up, dried and stored at a temperature of +14 degrees in a dry basement.

Tulips are very beautiful and popular flowers that will not leave anyone indifferent. Their homeland is Central Asia. In nature, these unpretentious bulbous plants grow well in deserts and steppes, on mountain slopes, in climates with cold winters and dry summers. Cultivated varieties of tulips have a huge variety of colors and shapes: peony-shaped, lily-flowered, multi-flowered, etc. In addition to their visual effectiveness, they have excellent quality - tulips can be grown at any time of the year in your apartment. In this case, there is no need to create greenhouse conditions. All you need is a flower pot with soil and a bulb.

What varieties of tulips are suitable for home growing?

Varietal tulips are extremely beautiful, but at the same time capricious and demanding of growing conditions. Therefore, for home forcing it is better to choose simple, low-growing varieties. These include the following:

Greig's Tulip. It has a beautiful glass-shaped flower. A distinctive feature is wide leaves with a variegated color pattern. The color of the bud can be either one-color or two-color. The petals have a pointed shape. Greig's tulip exudes a delicate delicate aroma.
Foster's Tulip. Laid the beginning of Darwin's hybrid. The length of the stem rarely exceeds 15 cm. It has bright shades, resistant to viruses.
Tulip Parade. It has a large goblet-shaped bud. The flower has a red tint with orange veins; it remains unopened even in the sun. It reproduces well.
The Crystal Beauty and Fringed Apeldoorn varieties are ideal if you want to please your loved ones New Year. They are both terry and fringed. The shades of the flower are very diverse: from red-orange to lilac-violet.
The New Year's variety Christmas Marvel can be grown not only in the room, but also on the balcony. It has a goblet shape and a very beautiful crimson color with a white border.
Variety Lustige Battle. It is bowl-shaped, bright red in color with a white border. It reproduces very well, ideal for winter forcing.
The Dutch variety Scaboro will bloom exactly by March 8 if planted in late September - early October. The flower is large, bright orange with a yellow edging corner.
The Apeldoorn Elite variety opens wide, like a poppy. It has a spectacular orange color with a yellow edging along the edge of the petal. Blooms to the International women's day.

A tulip bulb is actually a modified shoot. In the center of the bulb there is a rudimentary peduncle; on top it is protected by scales, which form the bulb. Tulips are self-renewing plants. Despite the fact that after flowering it dies, the embryos of daughter flowers begin to develop in the bulb. If the faded stem is picked in time, all the nutrients will go into the bulb. It is dug up, the “babies” are separated from the mother’s fetus, which dies. Thus, one bulb will produce 3-4 new flowers.

The life cycle of a tulip depends on natural conditions, so it is quite possible to create an artificial microclimate suitable for the growth and flowering of tulips. Knowing the peculiarities of growing and caring for these beautiful flowers, you can create a botanical garden at home even in the middle of winter.

Growing tulips for the New Year

Whatever gift you give for the New Year, a bouquet of fresh flowers will in any case bring genuine joy. Especially if a bouquet of tight, strong flowers stays in a pot of soil for one and a half to two weeks. You should take care of this in the fall. How to properly prepare for forcing? Bulbs for New Year's flowers should be planted in October, following certain recommendations.

First you need to prepare the ground. It must be wet. Ready-made soils for bulbous plants are sold, but it is better to make the substrate yourself. Mix half a liter of river sand with the same volume of humus. Mix a liter of turf with ash there. This composition of the substrate is necessary to retain moisture in it, because the bulb does not need nutrients from the soil; they are already accumulated in it.
Place drainage (expanded clay) at the bottom of the pot or box and fill 2/3 with soil.
Place the bulbs quite tightly, but so that they do not touch each other.
Cover the bulbs completely so that the tops are not exposed.
Place the pot in a cool place, for example, on a glazed balcony or on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator (if it is a small pot). The temperature there should not drop to 5°C. Do not cover the ground with anything, make sure to maintain the moisture level.
2 weeks before the celebration, bring a box of bulbs into the room. During this time they will take root. Do not place the box on a sunny windowsill; it is better to place it on the floor when the window faces south. If this is not possible, cover the sprouted bulbs with paper caps.
A week before the planned event, place the box on a well-lit windowsill. If there is not enough light, use phytolamps so that the daylight hours for the flowers are 10-12 hours.
Water the flowers every day with water warmed to room temperature (preferably with melted snow) and feed with calcium nitrate.

Tulips are a traditional gift for International Women's Day, which symbolizes femininity and the onset of spring. Flower shops earn half of their annual revenue on the eve of the holiday. So why not please yourself or your loved ones with flowers grown at home? The material for forcing spring tulips is practically no different from preparing for growing winter flowers. However, planting the bulbs should take place in January, taking into account the fact that rooting will take 8 weeks.

The soil is prepared in the same way as for “winter” bulbs (a mixture of sand, turf and humus).
In spring, microbes and bacteria become active. For disinfection, the bulbs are first placed in a solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour.
The flower box is filled with a layer of drainage and 1/3 of the soil is laid out. The bulbs are laid on it, compacting the soil. They do watering. Soil is again laid on top, completely covering the bulbs.
Place the box on the balcony for 8 weeks for rooting. Watering is done weekly.
When shoots appear, the box is moved into the room and placed on a well-lit windowsill. To prevent the stems from stretching, the seedlings are gradually accustomed to light by covering the window with paper.
Feed tulips with fertilizer for indoor plants.

How to grow tulips without soil

Tulips grown without soil look simply luxurious and, in terms of their characteristics, are in no way inferior to plants grown in the ground.

Prepare a transparent glass vase, pebbles and purified water.
Wrap the onion in paper and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
Place pebbles at the bottom and fill 1/3 of the vase with water.
Place the bulb so that only the roots touch the water. The bulb itself should not touch the water.
Also place a handful of stones on top of it.
Place the vase on the balcony for a month.
Then move it into the room, and after 2-3 weeks you will receive a flower in bud.

Bulbous flowers grow regardless of the time of year (even in severe frost in winter) only because all important processes take place inside the bulb. Therefore, it is important to nourish the plant not only during flowering, but also the bulb itself before planting in the ground.

Heteroauxin is a potassium salt with a phytohormone from the auxin family, which promotes the growth of the plant itself and its root system. Produced in tablet form. Can be used when propagating adult bulbs. Having dissolved 1 tablet of heteroauxin in a liter of water, the undivided onion with the “babies” is placed in the solution for 15-24 hours. This procedure will cause active root growth, while untreated bulbs produce 2-3 roots. The more roots and the thicker they are, the more chances the “babies” have to survive. Also, the bulbs are kept in a solution of the drug before planting for better rooting.
The liquid preparation Narcissus increases the resistance of tulips to diseases and microorganisms, heals small wounds on the bulb, and destroys spores of pathogenic fungi. A drug of natural origin, the main active ingredient chitosan is an extract from the shell of crustaceans. Absorbs radionuclides, pesticides, heavy metal salts, stimulating the production of immunity and protective enzymes. The use of the drug accelerates germination by a week. The plant is fed with a solution of ½ cap of Narcissus per liter of water by watering at the root every 2 weeks. It is also recommended to spray an already mature plant with a spray bottle at the same frequency.
Natural growth regulator Zircon is made from Echinacea purpurea extract, known for its immunostimulating properties. The drug will help tulip bulbs adapt to new conditions (before removing the bulbs from the balcony into the room), and will have an antioxidant effect. If it is impossible to create an optimal microclimate for tulips (humid air and soil, indirect sunlight, a lot of light), then Zircon will protect the plant from possible diseases. Thanks to Zircon, flowering will not be affected; the buds will form large and tight. One capsule of the drug dissolves in 5 liters of water for root feeding.
The liquid preparation MisterTsvet Universal is suitable for feeding all indoor plants, including bulbs. Contains macroelements (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus), microelements (magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper), phytohormones, minerals and amino acids. Promotes excellent flowering, rapid growth and healthy appearance of tulips. 1 cap of the drug is dissolved in a liter of water for root feeding. Promotes the formation of a large stem, a large voluminous bud and a bright flower color. Feeding is carried out every 2 weeks. The solution is suitable for all house plants.

Tulips are convenient because they are unpretentious and can be grown almost all year round. It is not recommended to choose exotic varieties for home forcing (parrot, peony or lily-flowered varieties), because they are capricious and demanding on the microclimate. A short, strong stem will look much better than a long and thin one. It should be noted that the color of a tulip grown at home will not be as bright as that of one grown outdoors. garden plot flower. However, with proper care and in your apartment, you can admire unusually beautiful flowers and inhale their aroma for 2 weeks, even when there is severe frost and snowdrifts outside.

Video: planting tulip bulbs in forcing boxes

Tulips are one of the first spring flowers with a fresh scent. But tulips can also be grown in winter, when a blizzard howls outside the window and the sun rarely peeks onto the windowsill. In addition, picked flowers will quickly die, but tulips grown at home will delight the eye all year round!

Growing bulbs of these flowers is very easy and interesting; you can do this with your children. And besides, they don’t need land at all, because tulips can be grown directly in water! You need to acquire the bulbs in the fall and store them in the refrigerator until you are in the mood to create beauty in your own apartment.

The process of growing tulips in water

Today there are an endless variety of tulip varieties on sale, from which you can choose any one. But the larger the bulb, the more beautiful and larger the flower itself will be.

When choosing flowers for growing, you should give preference to low-growing varieties that are resistant to diseases, unpretentious to growing conditions and can tolerate minor disturbances during care.

In November, when nature is so gloomy and the evenings are gloomy, we will sow what will delight us at the end of winter. It is necessary to put the bulbs in the refrigerator for 12-15 weeks. Please note that if you store the bulbs near apples, they may not bloom. After the required time has passed, distribute a layer of pebbles along the bottom of the container in which our tulips will bloom. Place the bulbs with the sprouts facing up, strengthen them with another layer of decoration and fill them with water. The water should be no higher than the level of the first layer of stones.

Keep an eye on the liquid level in the vase - flowers grow quickly and drink a lot. Place the flowers on the windowsill, and after 3 weeks they will amaze you with their beauty and aroma.

The video will allow you to better understand how to plant tulips at home. By following the recommendations, you will definitely be able to achieve excellent results and admire the exquisite buds on long winter evenings while waiting for spring.

Many people want to please their loved ones with spring flowers not only during their natural flowering period, but also during winter time. This can be done using artificial forcing. Flowers grown at home are no less beautiful.

Peculiarities

In order to grow tulips at home in a pot in winter, you need to familiarize yourself with some of their features. First of all, this is the time of planting, which largely depends on the variety of the plant in question and indicates whether it is early or later. In addition, it is very important to know what planting material is used: germinated or not. When planting in a pot, an onion weighing at least 25 grams must be used so that it has enough nutrients.

There are several options for forcing.

Early. Tulips bloom during the New Year holidays, which means the end of December and the beginning of January. At this time, tulips will become a truly fabulous gift.
Mid-early. The plants bloom in January just in time for Christmas.
Average. Tulips begin to bloom in February and delight all lovers with their beauty.
Late. The latest option, which is perfect as a gift for the Eighth of March. There is probably no person on earth who would not want to please his loved ones or mothers with such beauty, and even grown with his own hands.

Varieties

Today the markets offer a large number of tulip bulbs that have different forcing periods. Among them, the following varieties are worth noting.

Plants with early dates forcing. This is primarily “Diamond Star” or “Bridge Mize”. Buds appear within 2.5 - 3.5 months. The height of such tulips is small, up to 35 centimeters, and the buds in circumference do not exceed 7 centimeters. Most often, their shape resembles a glass. Great for beginner gardeners.

Tulips with medium forcing. Most often these are “Darwin hybrids”, which attract many with a tall bud reaching 11 centimeters. In addition, the plant itself grows up to 75 centimeters. However, for novice gardeners, growing them is not an easy task. It will be difficult to cope with their forcing without the help of more experienced comrades, since the bud is too heavy and it will be very difficult to preserve it for a long time.

Late varieties. For example, “Aristocrat” or “Triumph”. Their height is also no less than 75 centimeters, but the height of the flower is slightly lower, up to 9 centimeters. The shape of the bud is more like an open cup.

Preparation and planting

You need to do the preparatory process in the summer, when the tulips have faded and the bulb has gotten a little stronger. The plant must be dug up, and then healthy and stronger bulbs must be selected for forcing. Then very carefully remove the soil and place in a dry place. Store at a temperature of 23 to 25 degrees. After a month, the temperature must be reduced by 4 degrees and maintained until planting time.

Depending on what time you need to get blooming tulips, they are planted from the beginning of September to the beginning of November. The flower pot should be selected so that the bulb is at least 2 centimeters from the wall. If there is not one, but two or three bulbs in the pot, then the distance between them should also be at least one and a half centimeters.

Landing technology.

A drainage layer is laid at the very bottom of the container, which will prevent water stagnation. This could be fine gravel or expanded clay.
Next, soil is laid into which the prepared bulbs can be planted. Its composition must necessarily include leaf humus, peat and sand. You can purchase such a substrate either at a flower shop, or prepare it yourself. However, when doing it yourself, you need to ensure that the acidity of the soil is neutral. The soil level in the pot should be slightly below the top edge. This is done so that in the future it will be possible to add soil when the plant grows.
After this, the soil must be shed with plain water or a weak solution of manganese.
Next, peel the onion and soak it in a potassium solution for half an hour. This is necessary so that the plant does not get sick in the future.
Be sure to plant the bulb with the root down, press it one centimeter into the ground, and then sprinkle it so that it is completely covered. Only its tip can be on top.

Upon completion of the planting procedure, future beauties must be moistened abundantly.

Growing

After planting, pots with future tulips should be placed in a cooler place. The temperature in it should be within 5 degrees above zero, and the humidity should be at least 70 percent. If you have a basement or cellar, then they are best suited. However, if there are no such premises and the person lives in an apartment, then landing on the balcony is suitable. You can also put the pot in the refrigerator, but use the bottom shelf, where the temperature will be most suitable. In addition, the pot must be covered either with thick cardboard or extreme case regular newspaper, but leave a small hole so the bulbs can breathe.

After a month and a half, the flowerpot with bulbs can be taken out and moved to a warmer and darker place, where the temperature should be within 13 degrees. If this is an apartment, then you can put it on the windowsill, where there is no radiator, or near the balcony, at the very bottom, near the door. In cases where this is not possible, you can place the pot near the window, but at the same time cover it. The bulbs need to be watered periodically to prevent them from drying out.

After one week, you will see that the bulbs have sprouted to 6-8 centimeters. Now you can remove the cardboard and continue growing in a warmer and brighter place, for example, on a window. However, the light should be diffused, and the sun's rays should not burn the young shoots. Therefore, it is best to use windows that face west or east. The temperature must be maintained within 18-20 degrees.

After a certain time, the tulip leaves will acquire a natural green color. In addition, you will be able to see how the first buds are formed. This means that soon they will delight their owners with flowering. If the buds appear too early, then they should be placed in a cool place for a while. This will not only slow down the onset of flowering, but will also prolong it by several days.

Caring for flowering plants

Don't forget that flowering plants also require some care. For example, watering them should occur no more than twice a week. Top dressing liquid fertilizers- once a month. It is also necessary to monitor the appearance of yellowed leaves, which should be removed - this is necessary so that they do not take away the strength of the flower.

The plant must be protected from possible drafts. Daylight hours for a blooming tulip should be at least 6 hours. To preserve flowering longer, it is worth placing a pot of tulips in a place where there is no hot battery and heating devices. Be sure to ventilate the room from time to time.

It is best to do this in the morning, when the air is cleaner and fresher.

To summarize, we can say that you should not be afraid to try something new and unusual. You just need to please your loved ones and do everything possible and impossible for them. After all, a tulip grown with your own hands as a gift for a women's holiday or Valentine's Day will bring much more pleasure than one bought at the market or in a flower shop.

For information on forcing tulips at home, watch the video below.

Tulip fever, which began in Holland half a millennium ago and swept 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. Distinctive features There are six tulips, also arranged in two circles, stamens, and a 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 from 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, tulips dominate the market Dutch selection, but in many garden centers around the world dozens of new varieties appear 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 main star. 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;
V 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, capable of growing in conditions similar 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 from among the 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 is a lot in plant care important nuances which should never be forgotten.

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 stagnant water, 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 for 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 for each 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 the site has an increased risk of water stagnation or is located high groundwater, 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 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. Special attention It is worth paying attention 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 ( classic version– 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 decorative effect or to an optimal density of 10-15 cm. When planting with less 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 for each 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 in the early morning or evening standard rules, not 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:

In 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.

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 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.

Growing varietal tulips is very important role plays a role in limiting fruiting. 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 them in a timely manner. wilted flowers after the petals begin to wilt.

Trimming tulip flowers is not as simple as it seems:

Cutting for bouquets

It is carried out early in the 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, leaves should not be removed. 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

Starting 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 must 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.

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 characteristics of flowering, but also by the size of the bulbs. 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. Optimal height shelters - from 5-8 to 10-15 cm. Create a mulch layer 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).

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 (sinking 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 The only way to combat this is to destroy 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.