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Planting, Growing, and Caring for Tulips
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I received a potted tulip for Easter, it has finished blooming, what do I do before planting in the garden?
beginning gardener, please be specfic with information.
Hi Mary,
Unfortunately potted tulips that are forced to bloom indoors don’t have a high success rate when replanted outdoors. And if they do, it typically takes 2 or 3 years to rebloom.
With that being said, if you’d like to try to save your tulip bulb, cut off spent flowers and place your potted tulip in a sunny window and water regularly until the foliage naturally dies back. Tulips gather energy for next year’s blooms through their leaves. Once the foliage has died back, dig up the bulb and store it in a cool, dark location until the fall when you can plant it in the garden.
Good luck!
I grew tulips for the first time in my life this year. So I have about zero experience and I was a bit disappointed, when digging up my bulbs, seeing that those were not just divided or multiplied but their size were much smaller (about the third) to the ones I planted. What’s the chance for these smaller new bulbs to bloom next year and what do I supposed to do to get them grow bigger? If it’s possible at all…
Hi Ana,
Those smaller bulblets, also known as daughter bulbs, form from the original (mother) bulb you planted. Those daughter bulbs will eventually produce flowers that will replace the blooms from the original bulb, which will lose its ability to flower. The smaller bulbs will increase in size thanks to energy reserves it receives from the mother bulb. It may take a couple growing seasons before the bulblets become large enough to flower on its own, but some do flower the next spring. Eventually the daughter bulbs will produce their own bulblets to continue the reproduction cycle.
I am a 5 yr gardener of small vegetable garden & 3 flower gardens & this is my first tulip planting from tulip received from son so your advice is so important & simple & I appreciate all your instructions I seek to succeed as a happy retired woman doing as my mother did but all for the beauty of color & fresh food-thank you so very much Almanac😁💐🌷
We can’t wait to hear about your soon-to-be-growing tulips!
I’ve recently planted 5 tulips in a tub and had a deer come in and eat the tops of 4 out of 5 plants, do they continue to grow or is that it for this year and do I just leave the bulbs in situ ?
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the tulip bulbs would rebloom during the same year. You can remove any remaining flowering stalks, but keep the leaves, if they are still there, as that will allow the plant to make food for the coming winter/spring. Some tulip types may not flower the following year, but others may bloom for several years.
In most northern areas, you can keep the bulbs in the ground over winter. (If they are in containers, though, they will need extra protection.) In warm climate areas (Zones 7b to 10), to increase the chance for healthy blooms next year, you may need to dig bulbs up after foliage has browned/died and store for about 10 to 12 weeks in a cool/dark place (such as an unheated garage, or in a bag in the refrigerator crisper away from fruit/veggies, some of which emit ethylene gas that can damage the bulbs/developing flowers [ideally, it’s best to use a separate refrigerator away from food]) to give them a needed period of cold. Alternatively, in mild climates you can treat your tulips as annuals and buy new pre-chilled bulbs for the next planting season.
This past season I planted 150 tulip bulbs. They were all so beautiful. Then along came the high winds and lots of rain. I no longer have the flowering plants so can I cut them down to the roots now and leave the bulbs in the ground or do I need to take the bulbs up and replant them next season ?