Can I reduce tulip bulb splitting? If so, should I?
Each year I plant some new bulbs from the store, and some old bulbs from the previous season that have been dug up then stored then chilled first. I'm Southern Hemisphere zone 9b, so to get blooms again you have to lift them like this, if you can be bothered. I make a bit of an effort, partly because bulbs aren't so cheap here, but also because it seems a bit heartless to just chuck them!
But I do compromise and only dig up the ones that are planted in a raised vegetable garden bed (for cutting), because they're easy to find and it's easy to dig. Others planted in small clumps here and there in the rest of the garden are left because I forget where they were and the ground is harder to dig in anyway. They often come up again but usually just foliage (sometimes short flowers)
When I do dig bulbs up, they've usually multiplied, with up to five bulbs where there was one, often a couple reasonable size and the others smaller. I thought this was a good thing - yay, free bulbs - and the larger ones do bloom when replanted, but I throw the smaller ones out, so there's a fair bit of waste.
It's taking me ages to get my head around the whole bulb life cycle - multiplying, splitting, mother&daughter bulbs, the original bulb being gone altogether, offsets, bulblets etc - but now I'm realising that so much splitting may not be such a good thing? Is there anything I can do to reduce it? In the photos the bulbs on the paper bag are the same type from the same grower as the bulbs on the soil (one year ago they looked exactly the same)
Comments (8)
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6 years agorobin98
6 years agoRelated Discussions
New to tulips! Can I refrigerate bulbs and plant this spring?
Comments (6)Tulips are hardy in zone 2 as well. :-)They multiply so fast for me in this zone, that they have to be divided every year or they crowd themselves out and won't bloom, just send up many leaves....and eventually die out. Sierra...See MoreShould I worry, I haven't seen my tulips yet...
Comments (6)No, don't be worried yet. They are later to start poking through. Darwins are later to bloom than some other types of tulips. Mine don't bloom until the end of April or early May depending on that year's spring weather. You are south of me, but I would think that the bloom time still would not be that much sooner. Remy...See MoreTulip Bulbs do Split
Comments (3)It all depends on where you live, and the climate where you live. My tulip bulbs split, yes. But I can plant out even the tiniest little bulblets and even though the littlest ones won't bloom the following year, they will do so eventually. Certain tulip species in my garden border on behaving like weeds, because they multiply so frequently, and require thinning equally frequently. They also insist on blooming, which keeps them from completely falling into the "weed" category. Those tulips which divide, bloom and multiply with a vengeance for me are: General de Wet (Single Early) Little Princess (species hybrid) Tulipa vvedenskyi Lisa...See MoreShould I even try planting tulips in deer/rodent infested yard?
Comments (12)Maybe AlÂs squirrels have enough nuts to eat and thatÂs why they donÂt bother his tulips. The first year I planted them I soaked them in red pepper dip and they did not dig them up. They bloomed well but I had to keep going out the spray the blooms. The second year they dug up and ate or nipped almost all of the bulbs, despite the red pepper dip (not just tulips, plenty of other bulbs, puschkinia, every last crocus out of hundreds). ItÂs like they suddenly discovered I had tulips/bulbs and were now watching me. The third year I planted little alliums in every hole with the tulips, plus sprayed the bulbs in the hole with Tabasco spray. They dug them up, tossed the alliums aside, and ate the tulips. The fourth year I ordered tulips on sale late. I kept stalling for a spot of better weather to plant them, and it never came. It was mid December and freezing cold before I planted them. There didnÂt seem to be any squirrels around, maybe because it was so cold, they were all tunneled in somewhere. I did a lousy job of planting because I just wanted to get inside. I camouflaged the holes with dead leaves. None of those were dug up. Last year I was planting crocus, anemones, and species tulips in mid November. I saw the squirrels watching me and knew I was in trouble. I planted some one day and the next morning saw the digging and knew they were gone. The next ones I planted in clusters (even though that was not the arrangement I wanted for them) and put a big 1 foot landscaping stone over each cluster. The next morning I could see from the digging around each stone how hard they had tried, also how far they would tunnel under each before giving up. I planted all the rest of the bulbs that way. But the next spring only the tulips came up. I think the crocus and anemones rotted under the stones, I should have removed them once it got really cold like January; or after the squirrels had time to forget. I have not bought any tulips this year, though I did buy one package of crocus. IÂm going to try something that has been suggested here. I bought a roll of green hardware cloth, mesh maybe one half inch. I will cover each cluster with this, edges bent down to lock it into the soil. IÂm going to see if this works, and how much trouble it is, before I try more of the things they find tastiest. I bought things I know they donÂt eat, lots of daffodils and alliums. I still have to go out from the first tulip buds and spray with repellent. I don't have deer but the rabbits eat the flowers too. So I would try either one: plant so late that they arenÂt around, or cage/cover your bulbs with wire. DonÂt spend a lot until you know which will work for the level of determination found in the squirrels in your yard....See MoreUser
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agorobin98
6 years agorobin98
6 years agoThe tulips in the raised bed grew to a reasonable size (it's the mix of new and recycled bulbs I showed before)
But this is what happens with any left all year in the ground - tiny! Half a dozen frosts a year is just not enough chilling.
And what has happened here? Why are some of the petals green? Weather damage, mutation, virus??
robin98
6 years ago
robin98Original Author