Above all, start with top sized bulbs that show no signs of disease or damage. Plant the bulbs as soon as they arrive or when you find them in stores. If you must store them, store in a cool, dry place. Note that ripening fruits and vegetables, as in a refrigerator, produce ethylene gas which damages the bulbs.

Provide an ideal growing situation. Plant tulips in full sun. Tulips require excellent drainage and dry summer soil. Heger and Whitman, in their book Growing Perennials in Cold Climates, recommend digging a 12 inch trench. Remove the subsoil, rocks, and clay. Replace with a 50/50 mix of loam and organic material (well-rotted manure, compost, peat moss, or leaf mold). The result should be a very light and fluffy soil mix. Plant in a well-prepared raised bed if the soil is clay or rocky, or if drainage is hard to correct. Mix 6 cups of 10-10-10 or bulb fertilizer per 100 square feet into the soil, or mix a teaspoon into the planting hole about 3 inches below the bulb. To prevent burning of the tender feeder roots, avoid direct contact of fertilizer and bulb. Plant at the package recommended depth; some experts recommend planting an inch or two deeper to discourage critters and to insure return of flowers in the future. Water the bulb after planting, fill the hole with water and let drain, and then cover with a soil/organic matter mix. Water again and frequently until the ground freezes solid.

Let the top 2 inches freeze in late season before mulching (to discourage critters from moving in). Then cover with 6 inches or more of mulch; the mulch delays the freezing of the ground and keeps the tulip roots growing for a longer time before the ground freezes solid. Remove the excess mulch in the spring. Keep some mulch around the plants during the growing season. Mulch heavily again for the next winter.

Fertilize regularly, once in the spring as the small shoots emerge from the ground, with 4 cups of 10-10-10 per 100 square feet, and again in the fall with about 3 cups per 100 square feet. Mix the fertilizer into the top of the soil and water well. Well balanced organic fertilizers may be used, but avoid bone meal; it attracts skunks and rodents which will look for food and dig up the beds. Water well and on a regular schedule in the fall and until the plant dies down in the spring. Then stop all watering. Never water the bulbs in summer, or they may rot.

After bloom, remove spent flowers from most varieties immediately, so that the plant uses energy producing food for the bulb rather than for the seeds (species tulips may be left without deadheading so they can reseed.) Leave the green leaves to continue producing food for the bulb and for next year’s flower; let the leaves stay until they yellow and die down completely. Binding the leaves together at the end of flowering is a poor practice, causing the plant to produce less food for the bulb. If desired, put in annuals to hide the fading foliage. Some annuals, such as marigolds, require less water and are ideal companion plants for the tulips. Tulip bloom may decline in 3 or 4 years. When that happens, Whitman and Heger recommend digging up the bulbs, redoing the entire bed, and replanting the bulbs.

Tulips are very tasty to squirrels, mice, and voles; they may eat or dig up your bulbs. Temporary protection such as plastic or wire netting, screen, or burlap bag may work on top of the soil; as a permanent solution, you may have to build a wire cage of ½ inch mesh and plant the bulb inside that. If deer or rabbits eat the plants in the spring, try sprinkling blood meal on the soil, spraying the foliage with a bad tasting product such as Ro-pel, or fencing them out.

Another approach to keep flowers coming back year after year is to dig up the bulbs in the summer after the leaves have died down. Place the bulbs in a cool, dry place until fall planting. You will increase your stock from year to year.

Try single early and late tulips, lily flowered tulips, and species (wild) tulips for many season bloom. The species tulips will increase in number by reseeding, underground stems, and offsets. The older, heirloom types (as sold by Old House Gardens, www.oldhousegardens.com) are less hybridized than our modern varieties and tend to come back year after year. White Flower Farm (www.whiteflowerfarm.com) sells a perennial line of Darwin tulips.

Happy Gardening, Joe Baltrukonis