A friend was having her gardener dig up thousands of georgeous tulips
because he had told her that they are only really good the first year.
AFter that he told her only about 1/2 would come up , and not nearly
as big and beautiful. She ended up telling the gardener to give me
the old tulips....so now I have 4 huge garbage bags full.

1. I thought they were like daffodils and would multiply and come up
year after year. Don't they?

2. Do I plant them and let the strength from the greenery return to
the bulb.....or put some powder on them and hold them in the basement
till fall?

3. How deep do they get planted? Spacing?

4. Is this a windfall or just a bunch of work for nothing?

Joy

1. I thought they were like daffodils and would multiply and come up
year after year. Don't they?

All will put up greenery, but it's true, they aren't going to look as
perfect as the first year. It really depends on the tulip, though, for how
good or bad they return the following years. I had some double whites which
really didn't do well, but others that keep coming back and multiplying -
they just won't be all a perfect height, etc. I rather like them that way
myself.

2. Do I plant them and let the strength from the greenery return to
the bulb.....or put some powder on them and hold them in the basement
till fall?

If you've got a place to plant them, I'd plant them. And I'd envy you. I
have to move a whole bunch of tulips early to storage (moving out) and it's
not a fun prospect. I'm sure they'd do better putting their greenery to
use for the rest of their season. Just make sure the heads have been removed
is all, so no effort going into seed. Might want to give them some compost
too, though someone else may know better for feeding than I do.

3. How deep do they get planted? Spacing?

You've got the stems on, you you can see the soil line by where the deep
green turns pale, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were planted to the
best depth before... Pretty deep, around 7-8 inches is what I've been taught
for tulips. Spacing... it kind of depends on the look you want. I put them
pretty close, like 2 or three inches apart, and you can put them even closer
than that, so long as they're not touching. You can space them further apart
too if you're trying to get them to spread.

4. Is this a windfall or just a bunch of work for nothing?

Again, it really depends on the bulbs you got. Some of the newer creations
are pretty but not very good at naturalizing. Others, you've got a great
deal. If you've got a test bed, or spots you can get them in easily, it's
well worth the effort I think.

Hope that helps,

Ali

A similar thing happened to me when I received several garbage bags of
Hyacinth bulbs out of our gardens at work. I put them in the basement and
stored them until it was ok to plant and I only got about 50% of the bulbs
surviving; Althought I am optomistic that maybe those I lost will come back
for next years flowering. In your case I would recommend planting them and
spacing them a even distance out, just in case they are going to multiply.
In any case you are going to have a lovely garden in the spring with most of
the plants flowering. Enjoy!

In my case I would say you hit the windfall!

Heather

"Mike Hardie" wrote in message
news
A friend was having her gardener dig up thousands of georgeous tulips
because he had told her that they are only really good the first year.
AFter that he told her only about 1/2 would come up , and not nearly
as big and beautiful. She ended up telling the gardener to give me
the old tulips....so now I have 4 huge garbage bags full.

1. I thought they were like daffodils and would multiply and come up
year after year. Don't they?

2. Do I plant them and let the strength from the greenery return to
the bulb.....or put some powder on them and hold them in the basement
till fall?

3. How deep do they get planted? Spacing?

4. Is this a windfall or just a bunch of work for nothing?

Joy




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