Tulips - Part 1: Harvesting

Tulips

Part 1: Harvesting

It's a beautiful day in April and we are harvesting tulips (Tulipa).

Tulips can be treated as perennials and can be left in the ground to flower again, but we have planted our favourite 'Apricot Pride' bulbs closely together in a small area dedicated to cutting flowers.

If you grow tulips for repeated flowering, cut the stems well above the ground, leaving the leaves to continue feeding the plant. If you don't want to keep the bulbs, pull the stems out at the base and you will get longer flowers that look better in a vase.

When to Harvest Tulips

Our tulips flower from early April till late May, and we continue to pick them even if the blooms are slightly over. When picked at that stage, the double tulip 'Belle Epoque' will look good in water up to eight days longer.

To make tulips last longer, pick them when the buds are just beginning to open and submerge them up to their blooms in water.

Parrot tulips - 'Estella Rijnveld' - are rather short and may not look very elegant in the garden, but we love them mixed in a vase with other stripy and frilly parrot tulips.

Top Tips

• Tulips have very brittle stems. To avoid breaking them, pull off the leaves and tuck the stems under your arms as you pick.
• Wash the stems well to prevent any residual dirt from developing bacteria; flowers last longer in clean water.
• If you happen to pull up the stem together with the bulb, cut it off or keep it - you can display single tulips without water with the bulb on. If you don't want to keep the bulb, add it to the compost.
• If you are picking tulips for immediate use, pick them fully opened, but if you need them at a later date, pick when the buds are just beginning to open.
• Lay the flowers flat for transportation.
• Tulips do not cope well with hailstones; you should protect them with hoops and tarpaulin.
• Tulips are quite resistant to winds, but benefit from being interplanted with smaller plants for added protection.
• Use various lengths of tulips in arrangements.

Tulip Varieties Demonstrated in the Lesson:

• 'Apricot Pride'
• 'Estella Rijnveld'
• 'Van Eijk'
• 'Fun of the Circus'
• 'Impressions'