Did you make the perfect choice when choosing your tulip bulbs for this spring, or were the colours and flower forms not quite how you envisaged them ?
To avoid future disappointment why not make a visit to a late Spring flower show, which will provide the opportunity to gaze at every tulip you could possibly dream of. Take a notebook, a camera and ask the nursery growers ” how many years can you expect the flowers to look good for ?”
If you were content with your choice, but want to replant with new bulbs for the following year, why not dead head the spent flowers then carefully lift from the ground (or container) with the bulb, stem and foliage intact. Leave to dry out in a warm and well ventilated space and replant in late autumn.
A once productive vegetable patch has become the new planting bed for spent tulips in one customer’s garden. In addition to providing a blast of spring colour, It also provides the opportunity to find out which bulbs fare better over time in their stature and flowering capacity.
Tulip Turkestanica, with its delicate tiny star like flowers is stunning during April.
Raspberry Ripple, a mid season tulip with striking colour markings on the petals which hold their shape for weeks . It is a cross between a Single Early Tulip and a Darwin Tulip, and is widely considered to continue flowering well for several years.
Tulip Helmar, the vibrancy and size of these flowers has not diminished over the last three years.
Tulip Ballerina, has provided a strong and elegant presence for the last three years.
When you have ordered your perfect Tulip choice, plant them from November onward.
And finally mixing curry power into the compost around the bulbs, appears to stop squirrels digging them up…
Sally Wicks 
They are so enviable, especially since I grew NONE! They just do not do well here after their first year. When I see so many online, I really want to try them, and just might do so one of these years.
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Thanks Tony. I have planted thousands of tulips for customers over the years ! I just like trying out new ones every year.
I think you could try planting some species tulips, they would appear to be much more perennial. You should give it a go.
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I want to do both. I want the species tulips to be perennial, but I still want to try ‘Maureen’ just for bragging rights. I don’t expect them to last, but as long as they last long enough for me to get pictures, I would be fine with that. Someone sent me some perennial gladiolus last autumn, and as much as I like the fancier and more colorful types, I am SO pleased with Gladiolus papilio, which should last as a perennial.
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