Growing Tulips

Growing tulips is easy enough that most people should be able to do it with a little instruction. Let’s break the process down into bite size chunks so that even those who don’t feel like they have a green thumb are willing to try their hand at it!

Photo courtesy of Per Ola Wiberg (Powi)

Of all of the great backyard landscaping ideas, growing tulips has got to be one of the easiest things to do, and that which produces the highest reward. There is nothing like the emergence of tulips in spring, especially after a long, cold winter!

As with any backyard landscape design, you’ll first have to decide where you want your tulips located. Tulips emerge in spring before the weather is warm enough to sit outside, so they should be located where you will see them from the inside.

Can you plant them in a place where you would see them every day as your looking out your favorite window? Can you plant them in a place that you would pass by every day to and from your car?

Plan this carefully so that you locate your tulips in the best location. I’d love to start growing tulips in the backyard underneath my weeping willow tree, but I know I’d never see them! They’d be done with their spring show long before I every made my way to the backyard.

Now that you’ve got the perfect location, you’ll want to identify the color combination that you intend to use. When growing tulips, you can choose to have one uniform color throughout, which makes a very striking effect, alternate between two color combinations, or plant a variety of colors that all blend together. See my suggestions for this under bulb plants.

Personally, I’m a fan of either one or two color combinations. A mass planting of red or yellow tulips can be quite impressive!

I’m currently planning on combining my soft yellow colored tulips with the apricot beauty tulips I’ve ordered from Brecks (opens new window). Brecks is one of the best companies to purchase tulips from, and they generally have a sale in which you can save $25 on orders of $50 or more. I just took advantage of this sale myself!

If your soil is in poor condition, you may need to enhance it before planting your bulbs. See my instructions on how to plant flowers to learn more about improving the condition of your soil if this is the case for you.

Follow these instructions for a mass planting:

1. remove the top 6 inches of soil where you want the tulips located

2. place them in the bed you’ve created with the chunky side of the bulb down and the pointed side up

3. place the bulbs within about 4 inches of each other

4. cover the bulbs with soil

5. fertilize if you want (I never do)

6. and cover the area with a light layer of mulch.

The same instructions apply when planting two or more color combinations, but in that case you may simply dig individual holes for groups of 5-7 instead of one mass planting.

You will only be able to plant your tulips in the spring or fall. Planting tulips early in the spring produces blooms the same year, and those planted in the fall bloom the following spring.

You’ll notice when growing tulips that they tend to multiply, or “naturalize” from year to year. This is a good thing since it helps to fill out the area you’ve planted!

One thing I’ve learned from growing tulips over the years is that rabbits love the flowers! To prevent your rabbits from nibbling off the tulip heads, sprinkle them lightly with baby powder after the stems have emerged, but ideally before the flower has opened. For some reason, the rabbits don’t like the smell of the powder, and they’ll leave your tulips alone.

To get the best out of your tulips each season, let the stems die back on their own after the flowers have withered. This process allows energy and nutrients to go back into the bulb and fuel it for the following year.

That’s about all the work you’ll have to do from here on out. The tulips will take care of themselves without much more intervention.

I hope this information on growing tulips has your yard sprinkled with color next spring! Happy gardening!

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