Plants and Flowers

When buying tulips, avoid bulbs that are soft, mushy and choose large ones. As a rule, bulbs are sold by size: smaller bulbs are cheaper, and they produce smaller flowers. Note that bulbs of species types are naturally smaller than hybrid tulip bulbs.
Do not buy bulbs from stores that keep them in hothouse conditions. Such storage can ruin next season’s blooms. Bulbs should be cold-stored until shipping.
Plant bulbs in a well-drained place in the flower garden. Remember that damp soil promotes fungus and disease and can even rot bulbs. Plant them deeply, about eight inches deep.
After flowering you should remove faded blooms – this will direct energy of the plant into strengthening the bulb, not into producing seeds.
It is well to plant bulbs between groups of large perennials with strong foliage, such as peonies or meadow rue daylilies. The foliage of the perennials will hide dying bulb leaves.
Fertilize your plants in the fall, but if you have forgotten, apply a high nitrogen, fast-release fertilizer in spring with the first sprout.
You can also dig the bulbs out after flowering to free the way for summer annuals.

Have you ever happened to plant wonderful tulips and then found that they’re not so beautiful in some years.
These flowers are perennials, so what’s wrong with them?
Their mountain habitat is in Turkey and other central Asian countries, so tulips do the best in similar growing conditions, that is cold winters and hot, dry summers.
If they are growing in damp, humid and fertile garden conditions, a lot of hybrid varieties look marvelous the first some years, but then their flowers get smaller.
Careful gardener can avoid such problems by choosing tulip species and varieties that acclimatize well. Another way is to plant bulbs more deeply. The deeper you plant and the better drained your soil, the more staying power tulip bulbs will have.
When purchasing the bulbs, choose those labeled as good for “naturalizing”. This information can usually be found in catalogues, or on the pack of bulbs.
At 6 inches tall, species are smaller than hybrid types, so grow them at the edge of flowerbeds, in front gardens and in rock-gardens.

The most popular perennial varieties:
Single Early Varieties: ‘Keizerkroon’, ‘Christmas Marvel’, ‘Couleur Cardinal’
Triumph Types: ‘Don Quichotte’, ‘Golden Melody’,
‘Kees Nelis’, ‘Merry Widow’
There are also so called Darwin Hybrids, which are all in red, rose, orange, yellow, and two-tone colors.
Lily Flowered Varieties: ‘Aladdin’, ‘Maytime’, ‘Ballade’, ‘White Triumphator’, ‘Red Shine’