Pre-Chilling of Tulip Bulbs
breakingnews
15 years ago
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cynthianovak
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Pre-chilling tulip bulbs for 2nd year?
Comments (2)I guess it depends on what your time is worth. I did it for a few years and decided it was not worth it, considering the low cost of tulip bulbs. If you do try it you will find that many tulips create 'splits' with neither bulb large enough to bloom. Most tulips less than 12cm circumference will not bloom. When you sort out the splits and the undersized, the second year only about 30% will bloom again. With tulips going for about $25 a hundred or 25 cents apiece for 14cm sure to bloom bulbs, it was not worth it for me. Al...See MorePre-chilled bulbs
Comments (1)I don't think you will find such a dealer.....since there is no reason to stock such an item. In zone 5, there is ample time for a bulb, properly planted when it should be, to be purchased at the stores that stock them. To buy a pre-chilled bulb is supposing the dealer has refrigerator appliances to keep the bulbs at a certain temperature and have them ready for sale at a specified time. Pre-chilled bulbs are available in those regions where normally autumn temperatures do not fall below specified parameters for the different bulbs. Move to California or Georgia and you will find pre-chilled bulbs available when bulb time comes around....See MorePre chilling Bulbs
Comments (4)Kathy, Strictly speaking, since you are in zone 6b, the only bulbs that probably really "need" to be pre-chilled are tulips. Of course, that is assuming that y'all don't have one of those "warmest winter ever here" type of winters. I like to pre-chill tulips, daffodils, hycacinths and crocuses before I plant them here in zone 7, but that's just me being "extra-careful" to ensure I get good blooms the first year they are in the ground. (After that first year, the chilling hours are basically out of our hands!) Even here in zone 7b, only the tulips truly "need" prechilling, but I have an extra refrigerator in the garage, and it has space in it for all the bulbs, so I chill them all. In Texas, I pretty much treated tulips as annuals, since many of them do not come back reliably in zone 8. Here, in zone 7 southern Oklahoma, only 80 miles north of where I gardened in Fort Worth, the tulips tend to come back fairly reliably, so I do agree that a relatively short distance can make a big difference. So, at least chill your tulips and, if you have space for the others, I don't think you have anything to lose by pre-chilling them, with this exception: Sometimes pre-chilled bulbs will sprout earlier in the ground in the winter because some of their "chilling hour requirements" were previously met in the refrigerator. That earlier sprouting wouldn't be an issue in an average winter, but might be a problem if it occurred in a brutally colder-than-average winter. And, how in the world any of us can predict if we are going to have average, below-average or above-average temperatures in any given winter is beyond me. We haven't had a really good cold winter here in southern OK in years, but north of the Arbuckles, the winters have been more 'normal', I think. The fall planting of spring-flowering bulbs doesn't seem to get the media coverage here that it got in Texas (but, of course, I am in a tremendously smaller media market here) where the D-FW newspaper columnists would tell you "buy your bulbs by this date, chill until this date, then plant around this date....". I did find one recent article from The Oklahoma that briefly addresses bulbs, so linked it below. Hopefully someone who lives in the Edmond area will see your question and tell you how they do it, or you could call your local extension office. Good luck and happy planting, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Bulbs...See MoreWent crazy in fall, got TONS of tulip bulbs, chilled 6 wks, plant now?
Comments (4)I stuff some of mine in pots with my roses(after chilling). When they are done blooming, or when I cut them for vases, I just cut the foliage off to the ground. Since they are just annuals here I don't feel bad about it. You have a lot of them though:) Lisa...See MoreNell Jean
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