Home   Spalding   News   Article

Subscribe Now

Baytree Garden Centre's tips for tulips for the spring




In the latest Out in the Garden column, Baytree Garden Centre's Mark Cox offers tips for your tulips.

It would appear that, after a period of relative calm, a storm of hurricane proportions has ripped through the Cox household. I have named this Hurricane Hancock.

Since storm Hancock entered the home, via the magic of television, the present Mrs Cox and I have barely spoken to each other to the extent that I have now retired to the relative safety of my Toyota Prius.

It's time to plan ahead for spring tulips (60684107)
It's time to plan ahead for spring tulips (60684107)

With just the radio on and no distractions it is very easy to clear one’s head and plan for the future. When I talk of the future I am talking about how I’m going to re-design the garden in the spring. Subject of course to a cease fire and end of hostilities.

Winter is slowly taking hold and the daily temperatures, whilst above average, are definitely on the decline. Now that we are well into November for me it’s time to start planting my spring flowering tulip bulbs.

Tulip bulbs are the last of the bulbs to get into the ground and the reason for leaving planting until now is to prevent the fungal disease “Tulip Fire”.

Tulip Fire manifests itself when the fungal spores begin attacking the emerging tulips leaves. This attack causes the leaves themselves to become malformed and tell-tale brown spots appear, you can then watch the plant rot in front of you from the flower to the foliage.

However whilst this all sounds doom and gloom which is not like me I’d like to take the opportunity to remind ourselves that by planting tulips in November, the risk of Tulip Fire is greatly diminished.

As a general rule of thumb when planting tulips it is best to plant them at a depth of about three times the height of the bulb. Tulips like well-drained soil and will do well in a spot which gets either full sun or partial shade.

Now most spring flowering bulbs are perennials and will come back year after year. That’s not quite the case for tulips, you may be lucky and get a couple of years out of them but it is rare to get any more than that.

For the effect that I’m going for this year I’ve purchased more tulips than I normally would - and I’m sure it will be well worth the investment in the springtime.

I tend to like more naturalised flower beds but, for next year, I’m going to plant a big swathe of colour en-masse just for a change.

After waiting for Mrs Cox to leave - clad in her brightest multi-coloured Lycra for her weekly “Tums, Bums and Thumbs” workout - I set about planting up my bulbs.

I really do suggest you buy yourself a bulb planter as they make the job so much easier.

Place the bulb planter in the spot you’d like the bulb to be planted, push and twist and the bulb planter then removes a perfect cylindrical soil plug to your desired depth. Pop your bulb in the hole remembering pointy end up before placing said soil plug back into the hole covering the bulb.

The first 25-30 weren’t too much trouble but after planting over 150 of them I could feel a slight ache in my arms.

Thankfully I was done and within 90 minutes I returned to the Radio 4 sanctuary of the Prius.

It wasn’t until the following morning when I realised I’d overdone it again as I sat there trapped unable to lift my hands high enough to open the doors. I could however reach the heated seat button, bliss.



Comments | 0
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More