bloom date with bulbs produced in different areas; was: [pbs] winter hardiness - deep south trilliums

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Mon, 28 Jun 2004 12:31:10 PDT
At 07:15 AM 6/28/2004 -0700, Jane McGary wrote:
>I've certainly noticed different timing of emergence between bulbs brought
here 
>in fall and the same bulbs a couple of years later, when they've settled in.

In a USDA publication issued in 1926,  David Griffiths wrote about the
commercial cultivation of tulips in the US. One of his observations - a
warning to potential consumers - was that tulips of a given clone grown in
different areas do not necessarily bloom together. He had access to tulips
grown at the Bellingham, Washington State station and tulips grown here in
the Washington, D.C. area. If those bulbs were mixed in a mass planting,
the result was irregular bloom. Griffiths speculated about the cause - at
one point he believed it to be due to the differences in soil character,
although he also suspected conditions in handling and other factors. 

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I still have lots of
tulips to dig. 


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