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Will Any Tulips Bulb grow in my area?? please read...

17 years ago

i am interested in buying those showy tulips but not sure if they will grow in Los Angeles county.

I heard as long as i prechill the bulbs, they will do fine and i have to toss them after a year (treat them like an annual i guess?? )

please help me out

thanks

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Comments (7)

lilium_guy56
17 years ago
Well see there is an advantage to living here in the snow country. Hi from upper NY state. You can get the Tulips to bloom in any month you want in your area. Pick the time you want them to bloom...Say thats december 15. figure back 6-8 weeks and that will be the time you remove them from the FREEZER and plant them. So that would be Oct 15. Figure back another 7 weeks would be the time you need to put them IN the freezer, mid-late August. As long as they are frozen for 6 weeks or longer you can plant them anytime in your zone. They also need to be left in the ground/pot until the foliage dies. I've dug some up in july, froze them, had them bloom in nov in the house and refroze them and plant outside in April.No you don't need to trash them. Just wait until the leaves die then wait 2-3 weeks and dig them up for freezer storage. But if thats too much trouble trash them. I plant new GLADS every spring and let them die because I'm too lazy to dig up and store warm.
blueheron
17 years ago
Check the California Forum and see if they have any tips for you.
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Ok I will try to help you the best I can. it sounds like to me like you did everything right. although tulips to like cool temps in the 40s but not below freezing so maybe leaving them by the winter is a good idea, as long as you know it will not fall below freezing. Now about the wilting part, it sounds like your bulbs are starting to go dormant for the season, before you think about doing anything with them let me say this,Your right about the tulips being forced any tulips you get this time of year are forced. Forcing them takes a lot out of the tulip bulb which means the chance of them flowering again are not too good Sorry to say this! But if you want to try here is what you do. keep the pot in the sun above freezing temps so the leaves and start to build up strength for next year wait until the leaves have totally dried up keep it moist during this time. after that you can take them out of the pot and store them until fall. and in the fall you should give the tulips 6 to 8 weeks of cool temps in the upper 30s to very low 40s then they Might bloom the next year! but the chances are you will just get leaves with no flowers. but you can always try!
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I'd agree with much of the above. Tulips in particular are not reliably perennial in many climates because of hybridization and lack of proper growing conditions during their dormant period. Lack of winter cold may also be a factor although in the Bay area, I'm not sure that plays a huge role. I am further north than you and do experience a slightly colder winter (zone 8b) but I also live in an area that has the largest commercial tulip fields outside of Holland (local cut tulips found now in the grocery stores very likely came from our Skagit Valley fields) and there are minimal issues with adequate vernalization. Species tulips offer the greatest ability to return year after year as they have not been hybridized to the point that their perennialization has been bred out of them. Rotting of bulbs generally indicates poor soil drainage - virtually ALL bulbs require excellent drainage. And to maximize any tulip's ability to return in following seasons, they must be kept quite dry during their dormancy in summer - planting them in areas where they receive regular irrigation in summer, as with other perennials, will definitely shorten their lifespan.
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If it were me: I'd remove the weed cloth now. I've not seen it do anything good for the development of a good soil structure in clay. Gravel: I'd be thinking a mix of sizes rather than a single screen size. My preference would be for 2,5,7mm which can be useful when it gets dug through the soil/clay. As I'm using it as a mulch I wouldn't put it on any thicker than 2". Less could be better.(Sand is a no-no. It's like uncreamed butter and sugar in an angel cake...). As I'm planting into clay, and if I didn't have too many bulbs, I'd dig out circular shapes for my patches of colour to the depth for my zone and a little extra. Into the extra I'd put a layer of about an inch of the 2mm grit so the roots can get started into a better-drained area. If I could, I'd get a grit that stood out in colour from my soil. Later, when I come to lift the bulbs, I'd be able to see when I've 'hit bedrock' and I'd know to move carefully so I didn't harm my bulbs. Because I'm wanting to improve my soil over time, I'd add some agricultural lime - about an ounce to the square yard. Once I'd covered my bulbs I'd ensure that I stayed off that ground to prevent it from compacting. That's particularly important over times in the year when it's wet. The sad-looking bulbs: I'd plant them up in containers and I'd plant them quite shallowly. Barely covered, and in a free-draining mix - even 50:50 small grit and potting mix with no peat. I wouldn't want the water to stay close to them and I'd want whatever roots they can produce to have lots of encouragement to forage. (I'd even rescue the ones I tossed and give them a go, too.) Those containers I'd put where they get not much more than a couple of degrees of frost, moderate water, and good sunlight. A bit later on, when I see green noses above the soil/gravel (yes they DO come up through gravel) I'd feed them at the prescribed amount with either some potato or tomato food - powdered so it slowly breaks down, and lightly stir it in to the surface of the soil/gravel. Just once. With the damaged bulbs - some might flower. Some will die. Some might only put up leaves and split into smaller bulbs. Which is fine, because I can grow on those daughter bulbs for a year or two to give me 'free bulbs'. Any with streaky leaves I'd dig up and burn because they might have a virus and I'd rather be safe than sorry. All it needs is one travelling aphid and it could spread. No thanks. And next year, when the bulbs are finished for the year, I'd be putting my grass clippings onto the garden strip with a light sprinkling of lime, followed by as many autumn leaves as I could scrounge. Welcome mats for the earthworms. As an aside - if you do use the smaller grit sizes you can plant into it. The small 'johnny-jump-up' pansies, florists' anemones, verbascum, dianthus-pinks, linaria, eschscholzia, and a good range of other annuals will grow there - especially if you can provide some water over the summer. They may not be huge/lush but they will be sturdy and colourful. When it comes to weeding over the gravel (yes you DO have to weed...:-( ) use a two-tine hand fork or weed hook rather than anything conventional. If you use a knife, that will work, too. Forget spades - and rotary tillers. They're often not good for the health of the soil structure on clay.
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calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
17 years ago
You can have beautiful tulips blooming in January through March. Unless you are willing to leave the foliage die down through the month of April and then dig and sort them by size, saving only those large enough to bloom next year, I would just buy new ones every year. Many places sell good bulbs for about twenty cents each in bags of 50. Six weeks is the minimum amount of chill, I do mine at least 10 weeks. Chilling is refrigerator temperatures NOT FREEZER. An extra refrigerator that you do not use for your fruits and vegies is recommended to save the bulbs from the gas from the fresh fruit ripening. Tulips in California are well worth the extra trouble, my opinion. Al
gw:gigi-f
17 years ago
Hi All! I'm in Southern California, also giving tulips my first try here, also some daffodils and hyacinths. It is disappointing that they probably won't come back year after year, and therefore I can only get the real cheapies. But I'm giving it a go anyway. I found tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths at Walmart this weekend, just came in. So, please don't check the fruit/veg store in the fridge at my house. (I will get a seperate fridge for them ASAP, got the bulbs first.)
hemnancy
17 years ago
McClure & Zimmerman (mzbulb.com) carries a lot of species Tulips. Here are some that they say do not need a chilling period-
T. bakeri Lilac Wonder
T. clusiana Lady or Candy Tulip
T. clusiana Cynthia
T. clusiana var. chrysantha
T. clusiana var. chrysantha Tubergen's Gem
T. clusiana Lady Jane
T. clusiana Sheila
T. saxatilis
T. sylvestris

So you can have tulips that come back. They also offer a 30 bulb mix for the deep south for $15.95. Species tulips are generally smaller than hybrids but more reliable and less likely to be eaten by squirrels in my experience.
vetivert8
17 years ago
If you were to plant late - December, say, and select tulips that were either early or mid season, then plant them around 8" deep you may well find you can keep them for more than a year.

Tulips don't mind hot summers. It helps them to set the following year's bud. They have thick skins for protection, and can pull themselves down in the soil to some extent. Modern tulips do like a soil with some compost to it, though.

Another way of keeping them for longer than a season is to lift them each year - as if they were a potato crop. Clean off the leaves and any soil, then keep them in trays, labelled, in a cool and airy place, protected from mousies. (Those polystyrene grape-shipping trays can be useful for this.) If your home boasts a wine cellar - ideal!

Plant out the biggest bulbs for your display and put the smaller ones in their own nursery patch to grow on before being lifted again.

Many of the species tulips (Class 15) come from hot and dry places so, yes, they would probably give you a delightful display. Some of them have bold colouring while others are more subtle. And the (Class 6) Lily-flowered are seriously gorgeous.
patwood
17 years ago
Don't chill bulbs in your freezer. Optimum temperature is around 45F, which you can get by putting them in a crisper drawer. Freezing tulip bulbs solid will kill almost all of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Info on forcing bulbs

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