The brightest and one of the first spring flowers bloom quite quickly after emergence. It is necessary to decide when tulips are planted in a particular region and climatic conditions. Some species of this plant require annual digging of bulbs, but there are varieties that grow beautifully in the same place for years.
Ground preparation and timing
In order for the plant to give lush greenery and buds saturated with paints, work must begin in the fall. How to plant tulips in a new place, if the previous site has been depleted and requires rest and recovery? For bulbs, loose soil is chosen, in places without a close rise in groundwater to the surface. Clean river sand is necessarily introduced into the soil, which is mixed with peat or sphagnum moss. But nutritious fertilizing, such as manure or humus, is laid in the ground for a year or two before planting. It is better to fertilize the land with such means, which will "rest".
When deciding when to plant tulips, it is best to rely on the experience of local gardeners. In the middle lane, the creation of new holes and germination of bulbs in open ground is carried out from mid-late September and lasts until mid-October. In the southern regions, these dates are shifted to early to mid-October. The main rule: rooting should occur before the onset of frost.
Preparing bulbs for planting
When tulips are planted, prepared material must be sorted by size. The location of the flower and the depth of future holes will depend on it. In the world of professional gardeners and breeders, there is the following classification of tulips and their bulbs:
- 1st analysis - the size of planting material is up to 3.2 cm. With its help, you can get the largest plants with huge peduncles. Such tulips are used usually only for winter distillation;
- 2nd analysis - diameter 2.5-3.1 cm. These varieties are not used for distillation, but they also produce very large peduncles;
- 3rd analysis (2.0-2.4 cm) - when tulips of these sizes are planted, they get long stems with medium buds. However, the germination of these varieties is only 50% and depends on the terrain and weather;
- children of the 1st and 2nd analysis have sizes of 1.4-1.9 cm and less than 1.4 cm. The first analysis is used for self-growing planting material or creating tiny flower beds and pots with tulips. And small onions up to 1.3 cm in size will not bloom, they are suitable only for growing.
Selected planting material is carefully studied, discarding damaged or diseased bulbs. When tulips are planted for the first time, the onion roots are soaked in a pale solution of potassium permanganate for 15-20 minutes, in order to prevent infection of the soil or future plant with accidental diseases.
Planting tulips in the open ground
The depth of the holes is determined by the size of the bulb, but usually adhere to the triple diameter of the planting material. That is, for a tulip 2 cm in size, a 6 cm pit will be required, and 12 cm for a 4 cm pit, etc. If the ground in the winter tends to freeze deep deeply, beds need to be covered with 8-12 cm thick foliage on top. If the temperature does not drop more than up to -4 - no shelters are needed. You need to remember the three rules for tulips - good drainage, the correct depth and do not freeze the bulbs. Observing these simple conditions, it will be quite simple to get lush flowering and a unique tart aroma in your garden.