Tulips, no doubt, are a very popular bulb plant throughout the world . You have a great desire to make a beautiful flowerbed at your site , which will please you in the spring, and have looked for new varieties for yourself, but doubt when tulips are planted? This article will help you understand this issue, and blooming flower beds will appear in your place every year.
Let's start with the most common mistake of beginner gardeners. When they see tulip bulbs in the store in early spring, many are “seduced” and buy. Having planted them in their garden, they look forward to beautiful flowering and are very disappointed with only green leaves. Why is this so? In 95% of the bulbs do not have time to root and produce only foliage. Not very upset, tulips will bloom next year.
When should tulips be planted?
In order to see beautiful flowers in spring, you need to plant tulip bulbs in the fall - in September, October. At this time, there is a lot more planting material, and the choice of varieties is very diverse.
When planting, you should be guided by the temperature of the soil, which should be in the range from +4 to + 10 ° . Bulbs are well rooted at a temperature of + 4 ° C. It will be good if from the moment of planting the tulips to the onset of persistent frosts at least 3-4 weeks will pass. During this time, the bulbs will have time to root well.
When tulips are planted, they are deepened into the ground by 5-15 cm, depending on the variety and size of the bulb. In other words, it will be a third of the height of the bulb, so you do not deepen them very much. In classical literature, they recommend the area where the bulbs were planted, mulch with straw, peat or loose leafy soil. And if in your strip there are very severe frosts - cover with a layer of leaves or branches of spruce, this will protect the plants from freezing. Be sure to remove the shelter in the spring so that the sun's rays can warm the soil.
And do not be afraid that your sprouts will peek out from under the ground, they are frost-resistant and will withstand frosts down to -12 ° .
When tulips are planted, in no case should fresh manure be brought into the ground! This will lead to infection of the bulbs with fungal diseases or decay. If you want to nourish the soil in which you will plant the planting material, then it is better to prepare the beds a few weeks before planting, digging the soil with compost, and remove the weed roots. Feeding tulips will need to be done in the spring.
The soil in which the plants will be planted is also given attention when tulips are planted. Light sandy loam soil is best for bulbs. And if the earth is very dense and heavy - this can be solved by adding river sand, making compost or adding loose fertile soil.
Now you can easily answer the question: "When to plant tulips - in autumn or spring?" In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to planting material. If you have hybrid varieties of tulips, they are recommended to dig out (in June) every year in order to preserve the variety. Ordinary and unpretentious varieties can grow without transplanting in one place for several years.