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California Gardening

Bay Area Tulip Growing

13 years ago

I posted this on the bulbs forum, but I thought I should repost here for any tulip growers. Please help :)

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I'm new to tulip growing and I have a few questions. I hope someone could help.

First, I planted tulips in December this year and they are in bloom now. I planted two varieties and only one was successful, most of the others rotted before they could bloom.

I don't remember the exact names. The ones that rotted were the parrot kind with the ruffled edges, and they are yellow and red.

The ones that were so successful (came up later) were a pointy tulip, with red on the outside and yellow inside.

They look similar to this

http://www.johnscheepers.com/catview.cgi?_fn=Item&_recordnum=5163&_category=Tulips:Species

So, I'm wondering a few things.

First, the ruffled tulips that were unsuccessful, look like they still have some bulb trying to come up. Is it possible they would send up a second stalk and bloom?

I've read that I can't dig these out and keep them for next year. That our climate is not good for that.

is that true?

Should they be pulled and tossed?

And lastly,

I have a coupon for bulbs that I can use now.

I don't need summer bulbs but I would like to try some more tulips and peonies for next fall/winter.

Can I buy they now and keep them stored til next year?

Can I store them in a box in my garage?

And in general, some questions for anyone else in San Francisco (or west coastal region with fog):

- When do you plant out your bulbs?

- Have you found that certain varieties of tulips (or peonies, which i haven't grown yet) do best??

- Any other tips or tricks you learned along the way?

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Comments (3)

chadinlg Zone 9b Los Gatos CA
13 years ago
basically think of most all tulips as annuals. pre-chiil them in fridge for 6 weeks.
I have seen some bulbs which rot or don't grow well, but I can't say this is limited to certain varieties, though the almost black tulips seem wimpy..

Tree Peony types can do OK here, most others do not get sufficient chill. There is a Peony nursery in San Jose, but it is high in mountains so is more like zone 8.

If you want to know what stays around here search for zone 9/10 tulips. T. bakeri, chrysantha, wilsonii are some that I grow.

Try some Daffs and amarylis 'naked Ladies', many Daffs do not need chill and are gopher proof, search for Bill the bulb Baron site.

Try South African bulbs like Watsonia, Tritonia, Sparaxis, Freesia etc.

Chad
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Laurel Zito
13 years ago
I had good luck with some I bought at home depot after thanksgiving and chilled until March 1, but you have to chill them in a separate refrigerator, not the one you use for your food. If you have a small soda refrigerator this works. It has been a bunch of years, I have been trying with tulips, and this is the first time it did not work out. I used to plant them in the fall and they never worked out. I used to buy like a bag of 100 and I would get like nothing. They say certain ones are better then others, but I don't know if this is really true, however, queen of the night I have found always is successful.
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onederw
13 years ago
For Tropical Thought: My guess is that you did nothing wrong at all.
I would put forth the guess that your bulbs had already been improperly stored by Big Box before you purchased them. Once they'd been damaged, there was nothing you could do.
As an FYI, when you put your bulbs in the fridge, the particular kind of food you need to keep your bulbs away from is apples. They off-gas a substance that kills the bud within the bulb.
One other thought (voice of bitter experience here): Prep your bulb bed before you take your tulips out of the refrigerator. If they warm up before you get them into the ground, they're likely to try to grow leaves and stems before they grow roots. Not conducive to lush and healthy blooms.
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