A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Tulips

Help!

We have some tulip bulbs we bought in Holland, Michigan a few years ago. We planted them 3 years ago, with fertilizer, etc. The following s;pring, we had lovely green leaves, but no sign of stalks or buds. Same the next year. In all fairness, we were away during the time when these MAY have burst forth, even if we did not see them.

This year, we have big, green leaves, but they seem "floppy" if not wilted. I watered them, because we've had no rain for several days, but this does not seem to have helped much.

No sign again of stalks or blossoms. We don't see anyone else's tulipd out yet, either.

Is it just too early in Vermont? Is it normal for the leaves to seem to "flop over" like this?

Thanks!

Vermonter

Hmmm, how deep did you plant them?

A lot of the time too much fertilizer can produce lush greenery but no flowers--I learned that my first year of gardening...learned it the hard way.

I'm in zone 6 here and my neighbor always pulls her tulips up each year because of the cold...it's too much hassle for me so I leave mine and slowly each year many of them have totally dwindled off and disappeared. My Walmart cheapo ones have come back for years now, but my special ones I got from Brecks that were double tulips and strawberries and cream colored are pretty much all gone now.

Loz, your tulips are still there. It just seems that after a few years they have to be dug up, separated and replanted. The babies they produce seem to take away the energy for the plants to continue to grow.

Oh that's good....I'm not a tulip expert or anything......I'll have to dig them up and do that. They were expensive pretty ones.

That's good to know. I wonder if the same is true with hyacinths...either that, or they're heavy feeders, because I've never seen hyacinths do well for more than a few years.
I do think it might be early for tulips in Vermont. I've only had a few begin to bloom here in zone 7.

Vermonter, I should also add, I don't know why the leaves are floppy, they do tend to be more floppy than daffodils and other bulbs, so it may or may not be normal...I'd have to see them.
They really should have bloomed at least the first year...the bloom is actually contained inside the bulb, if you could see it in cross-section, and those should have been good quality bulbs. If you weren't there to see the blooms, there would have been a stalk that persisted for some time after the blossoms dropped. Tulip blossoms are very easily blown off the stalk by the wind...around here, we're lucky to see a blossom last more than a couple of days before a strong wind blows them away!

I think it is too early for them to be blooming up in Vermont - mine are first starting to bloom here in NY, and my parents who are over the Hudson River haven't had any blooms yet.

I was just curious because I once planted them to deep and just got leaves, that fall I dug them up and lifted them higher, next spring I had tulips.

Not sure on the hyacinths.

I know hyacinths are shorted lived bulbs and they suggest replacing them every 3-4 years

mine have slowly stoped blooming too. so when you dig them up and replant, you do it after the leaves die back right? and i would just lift them a bit??? anything else i can do to help them bloom again next year???

I have never really gotten big into tulips for the simple reason after a couple years of bloom they don't seem to bloom again. I had an uncle that had beautiful tulips and I found out he planted new ones every fall. I didn't even remember planting these that are in bloom right now. DH said we did last fall.

I had that color one time and they do change colors.. I think mine is yellow and orange now.. Just starting.. I am baffled of what to do.. Some are yellow some are red......I dont want to mix the colors.
Lots said they do them new yearly.....

Thanks for the advice everyone..

:ding:

Sounds like too much nitrogen, All I do is work some bone meal in around my tulips and they seem to do well here, even in my alkaline soil (pH 8.5). Try testing the soil at your place and see if you even need any fertilizer, you might not.

One thing for sure...Tulips must be stratified to bloom. If your in arizonia , it doesnt happen...One advantage of cold states.

I'm in Arizona, and my tulips bloom every year.