Need Advice About Tulips

... and if you handle to many bulbs, you might get "tulip fingers" (a dermatitis from handling tulip bulbs).

Hmmm, my understanding was tulip bulbs are only toxic when a fungicide is used on them:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/tulips/TreatedTasty.html

but better safe than sorry.

Might be drought loss Soz. Ferns don't like to get dried out at all. I lost all of my ferns.

Ferns can be very temperamental, soz. Don't take it personally. Some don't transplant well. Did you buy them at a nursery, or were they hand-me-downs from a friend or neighbor?

I wish the nurseries here stocked some of the older varieties of tulips. The new hybrids are the only kind we get, and they don't last. (Exception: the miniature red bunch tulips that look great with grape hyacinths...they come back fine every year.)

I planted two different kinds of ferns -- plants, from the nursery (5 I think), and bareroot from White Flower Farm (6). No sign of any of them yet. Hmph!

Conditions were pretty wet after I planted them and through 'til now... a few of 'em I planted way up on the grade and haven't gotten up there to take a look yet, I'm hoping at least they survived. (They should be poking out by now if they're OK, right? This is my first time with ferns.)

my thought is simply BoneMeal and well drained soil.

My friend Richard told me about this oldhousegardens site -
so when I looked up tulips a few minutes ago, I clicked on that page, and sure enough, they have lots of old heirloom tulips. The site looks interesting.

http://www.oldhousegardens.com/bulb.asp?Cat=TU

On Species Tulips -
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/9-16-1994/sptul.html

This place carries Species Tulips...
http://www.thimblefarms.com/sbulb6.html

Thank you, osso!!!

Thanks for all the info and suggestions, everybody!

I checked around with some of the local nurseries and it appears no one has many tulip bulbs at the moment, so I will probably have to wait until September to plant them -- but that's ok.

I can still my plant my other flowers this Spring, then next year -- I'll have tulips!!



Yep, I may have to do that, Eva. The soil in front of my patio is crap, so I'll probably have to dig down deep and put some decent soil in. But once I do that, I should have a good "bed" for them, and hopefully it won't be too difficult to dig them up and plant new ones if I have to.

Besides, it's not like I'm going to plant some big field of tulips. I just want to do four or five little circles in front of my patio, each with about four or five tulips (with maybe a daffodil thrown in). I think that'll look very pretty.

I love those flowers! I even love tulip-scented candles!

As far as animals, I see one or two squirrels around occasionally, but not too many of them. What I'm more concerned about is a rabbit that likes to hang around my patio. Sometimes when I come home from work, he's lying in front of my patio taking a nap!

I've never seen any evidence whatsoever that he's ever bothered any of the flowers on my patio -- but I'm afraid the tulips might be a real temptation for him. So I'll definately bear some of your tips in mind.
:wink: