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When Should I Plant My Potted Tulip Plants?

Each year garden centers and florists sell potted tulips as Valentine's day, mother's day or spring gifts. These potted plants help to bring the outdoors into the home and relieve spring fever in some small way. But potted plants such as this will not resprout a second time in a container. If you want to regrow your tulip bulb, you must put it in the ground.

  1. Tulip Bulb History

    • While gardeners think of the tulip as a Dutch flower, the bulb originally grew in central Asia. From there it traveled to Turkey. The Tulip came to Holland from Turkey in 1590 where tulip fever gripped the Dutch like a strange disease. Tulips provided ornamental pleasure and ingredients for medicine. Speculation on the plants drove the prices up until a single bulb cost more than a house in Amsterdam.

    Hybrids

    • Tulips at one time had ruffled leaves and variegated petals. But in the 20th century, scientists discovered that these were not genetic variations, but symptoms of infection by mosaic virus. Since that discovery, suppliers stopped selling infected tulips. Today growers are attempting to develop tulip hybrids that have these characteristics genetically. Tulips sold in containers are typically bred for size and appearance rather than longevity, producing a bloom that is marginal in the second year and no bloom at all in subsequent years.

    Chilling

    • Tulips require a certain amount of cold weather in order to resprout, grow and bloom properly. Tulip bulbs require 14 to 15 weeks of temperatures between 35 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. These requirements are difficult to meet in a home or in climate zones south of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6. Because of this, gardeners rarely use tulips in southern landscapes.

    Process

    • In order to plant potted tulips, remove the spent flower stalks once the tulips die. Do not damage the foliage. The bulbs rely on the foliage to gather energy through photosynthesis that they will use for growing the next year. Place the container in a cool sunny spot and water the container to keep the soil slightly damp. Fertilize with a balanced commercial fertilizer such as a 20-20-20. Reduce water and fertilizer when the bulbs begin to die on their own. Once the foliage dies, move the pot into a garage for storage so that the plants will stay dry. Remove the bulbs from the container in September and discard any that are soft and mushy. Plant the rest just as you would tulips from a garden center.

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Bulbs
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  2. When Should You Uproot Potted Tulips?
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