tulips in warm climates

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:19:38 PST
Hi,

In Northern California most of the species I have planted out don't 
last very long and if I get them to bloom in previous years it has 
only been a couple of times. But I do have a shady garden and don't 
have much luck with Narcissus either even though they bloom well in 
open areas for others where I live. After the leaves die down I put 
the bulbs in paper bags and store them until early November when I 
put them in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks and then plant them in 
December. Many of them do very nicely year after year including forms 
of T. clusiana and T. linifolia and T. saxatilis 'Lilac Baker'. I 
expect the various forms of T. clusiana to be blooming this week.

One year I gave a pot of blooming T. linifolia (yellow /grown as T. 
batalinii) to someone as a thank you and she reported the next year 
that she had just left it in the pot and done nothing and the second 
year it bloomed again. Since it expands by offsets, I keep thinking I 
should try that one in the ground or at least see how it does in a 
pot without prechilling. So it's nice to get the report from Spain.

And Lauw, you told us the ones you tried. Were they all successful? 
If not, which ones were?

Mary Sue
>  I live in Spain southern Catalonia in a dry med. climate ( 9 Us 
> zone)  During many years I tried  to acclimate( and I am still 
> trying!) various botanical tulips. In the garden, many disappear 
> but some seem to naturalize and even to prosper, eg. Tulipa 
> clusianaTulipa chrysantha ( dark and pale form)tulipa linifolia ( 
> gorgeous) Tulipa linifolia  ( yellow form) tulipa orphanideaA local 
> form of tulipa australis

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers  




More information about the pbs mailing list