It is time to plant tulips, such as Queen of the Night, writes Gareth Carter.
Gareth Carter is the general manager of Springvale Garden Centre in Whanganui.
OPINION
Spring flowering bulbs are a real delight in the garden. When you see them in gardens in the late winter and spring, it really makes you want to get on and plant some.
The trick is that they need to be planted when they are dormant – which is now, in the autumn months. Daffodils are synonymous with spring and there are so many different ones to inspire, from the traditional open yellow cup to many colour combinations, the fragrant jonquil or polyanthus types, double-petaled blooms and more.
There is a tremendous range of other spring flowering bulbs including anemone, bluebell, Dutch iris, freesia, grape hyacinth, gladioli nanus, hyacinth, ranunculus and tulips, to name a few.
In today’s column, we are going to look at tulips.
Tulips immediately make me think of pictures I have seen of Holland, with fields of tulips and windmills. While this is a common association, tulips actually originate from central Asia. There are about 150 “wild” species, many historically found along the Russian and Chinese border, all the way to France and Spain. They first captured the interest of the Turks in the Ottoman Empire around 1000AD where they were cultivated for their beauty.
Tulips got to Holland in the 1500s when De Busbecq, the ambassador to the court of the Sultan Suleiman in Constantinople, the seat of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, gave some tulip bulbs from Central Asia to a botanist named Carolus Clusius working at the University of Leiden in Holland.
Many in Holland had seen paintings of tulips and the bulbs became sought after. From 1634 to 1637, prices for tulip bulbs skyrocketed and a period now known as Tulipomania was experienced. It is reported that at the peak of this interesting phenomenon, a single tulip bulb sold for 10 times the annual income of a skilled artisan (craftsperson producing cheese, wine, or a handyman). There are also reports of a famous sale of a single bulb for the equivalent of US$2250 plus a horse and carriage.
The bubble burst and the cost of the bulbs became more reflective of the intrinsic value of producing a tulip bulb. However, the Dutch love for tulips did not decrease and today they have one of the best-organised tulip production and export businesses in the world.
After their fascination for centuries, tulips today are a result of much hybridising, and the range of sizes, colours and flower styles is varied. They are as spectacular as ever. In the home garden here, I’ve found it hard to resist planting a few tulip bulbs at every house that I have lived in over the years.
Tulips are easy to grow. Buy a few packets of bulbs now, dig a hole and bung them in.
There are a few different ways tulips can be treated and it is worth having a go to see what works for you.
Tulips come from Central Asia where they experience a cool winter period. This causes a process called vernalisation which can sometimes be important to give good flowering.
The process of vernalisation can be replicated easily by the home gardener by placing bulbs into the fridge for four weeks before planting them out into the garden. Before planting it is great to enrich the soil with Tui Sheep Pellets, Ican Premium Compost and Ican Bulb Food, ensuring it is well mixed together. If you are growing in pots, using a speciality mix such as Tui Bulb Mix will offer excellent results.
They should be planted at a depth of 1.5 times the height of the bulbs. A few weeks later, foliage will start to appear through the soil. The varieties vary in the timing of their flowering but are generally in August to September.
When the bulbs finish flowering, they should be fertilised as this active growing period is when the bulb stores up reserves which will determine the success of next year’s flowering.
The foliage should be left actively growing and the temptation to remove foliage should be avoided. Leave it to completely die off itself during the summer. Once this has happened, a textbook would tell you to lift the bulbs and store them in a cool, dry position with good airflow (a tray/box in the shed) until refrigerating in March/April and planting out four weeks later.
Some gardeners will treat tulip bulbs like annuals, simply removing them after flowering and throwing them away. Councils will often do this with public displays.
Others, such as myself, simply leave them in the garden. Despite the mild winters we have here in Whanganui, I have found that 80% of the tulips I plant will come back and flower each year without being lifted or refrigerated again.
I do recommend that to succeed in this “lazy” method, they need to be planted in a free-draining position which lessens the likelihood of the bulbs rotting. Fertilising twice a year with Ican Bulb Food, first as they emerge through the soil and again as they finish flowering, will help encourage good flowering.
For more gardening information visit www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz.