Planting Lots of Tulips, because why not?

Hi Lovelies,

Day 20 has come a little bit early to the blog, for the main reason that I probably won’t have internet access later tonight when I usually do my 2am writing – I know, I know. Anyway, one of the major tasks that I was able to accomplish today was planting out the single tulips. I like to think about tulips as if they were people, they’re all lovely in their own way. Some people might not like certain types of tulips, but that doesn’t mean that other people aren’t totally in love with them. I feel like I’m getting off topic.

Let’s just be real for a second, those hand planters are great if you’re only planting like 10 bulbs. And yeah, you can walk around digging holes – but how many can really fit in there? Like 20, maybe. Last year, I grew about 1000 single tulips. Depending upon who you are, this may or may not seem like a large number. For the home gardener, it might be a lot – but for a flower farm, not so much. Personally, this was the perfect number. During spring, I don’t have access to any other growing location, aside from my 30’x30′ shady backyard. So, it’s obviously important that when I decide to plant things, I make sure that they take up as little space as possible.

I was able to finish one bed today. It was 3’x6′ and holds just under 500 tulip bulbs. I space the bulbs much closer than indicated on the package – in fact, I like to imagine as if I’m putting them into an egg carton as I place them. I’m not sure where I originally read this idea, but I seemed to have heard it a thousand times. After all, if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it. Instead of planting the bulbs as deep as the package says, I usually stick to a depth of around 2″-3″. This works well for me in zone 6b, though I’m not sure how it would go in colder places. I usually don’t have problems with bulbs being taken by rodents (knock on wood), so this may also be a factor which may inspire someone to plant deeper.

Planting in this way works well for me because I’m growing these tulips for cut flowers. When the blooms arrive in the spring time, I’m able to grab each tulip at the base and lift the entire plant. This gives me an ultra long stem for arranging, as well as takes care of cleaning up the bulbs later. Basically, I’m treating all of my tulip bulbs as annuals, and eagerly await the one gorgeous bloom that they’ll give me.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Do you plant tulips? Which are your favorite? How do you do it? Feel free to subscribe and follow along on social media! Have a great day, much love!