Growing Tulips

Foxy Foxtrot Tulips

When I think of spring flowers my mind instantly goes to cheerful tulips. They are often the first flower to bloom on our farm in the spring. Their bright flowers are a welcome sight after the dark and gloomy winters we often have here in Western Pennsylvania. When I was starting my journey with cut flowers many years ago I would admire the other flower farmers who grew thousands of tulips each spring and I knew that one day I too would be doing the same thing. But how was I going to be able to grow the quantity that I knew I needed to grow for my customers? I knew I needed to learn some tricks. Here is what I have learned and how we grow thousands of tulips each spring.

A bed of tulips ready for harvesting.

This is how we grow thousands of tulips for cut flower production.

First things first. When to order tulip bulbs? Like many of the crops we grow our orders have to be placed months or even a full year in advance of their planting times, the tulips are no different. To remember to order the next seasons tulip bulbs at the right time we order them when the current crop is blooming. It can be a bit challenging to sit down in the busy spring and place an order for fall bulbs but that has given us the best success on the types and quantities we want to grow. We like to order tulips from Edine Flower Bulbs and Leo Berbee Bulb Company.

Margie standing with the 1st shipment of tulips.

Kate and Rosalyn excited the second shipment of tulips arrived.

When the shipment of tulip bulbs arrive in the fall it’s always and exciting day. Let the tulip planting begin!

A crate of tulip bulbs ready for planting.

We plant the tulips in temporary raised beds that are built with 8 inch wide boards and rebar stakes. It’s a simple process that we learned from another fellow farmer. This is way easier than digging a trench down 8 inches then moving all of the soil back to cover the bulbs. My back is very thankful we changed to this method after only one year of growing tulips.

A temporary raised bed for tulips.

Margie planting tulips in the raised bed.

We put down a bit of compost in the bed just enough to push the bulbs in so they won’t move. They are planted in an “egg crate” style. This means the bulbs are planted as close as they can be without touching. By planting the tulips this way allows us to grow thousands in a very small space.

After the bulbs are snug in their resting place for the winter we cover them with compost. The tractor does all the lifting. The bulbs are covered with 8 inches of compost, hence the 8 inch boards used to make the beds.

A bed of tulips planted in “egg crate” style ready to be covered with compost.

Moving the compost with our tractor makes covering the tulips easy.

After the bulbs are planted in the beds for winter we normally do nothing else to them. Our winters are cold and wet enough that the tulips will do their thing with out any additional help.

We use this same concept in our high tunnels. The high tunnel planted bulbs are watered heavily to the point that I always think that they are going to rot but they need so much water. It takes a lot of water to penetrate 8 inches of soil/compost. When it rains outside during the winter and in the spring, I water the beds inside to make sure they are getting the same amount of moisture. We also leave the ends of the high tunnel open all winter to ensure they get the cold treatment the bulbs require. Then in March we close the ends of the high tunnel to warm the soil.

Tulips growing in a raised bed in a high tunnel.

By growing tulips in the high tunnel it allows us to have flowers sooner in the spring. Our tulip season is a month long with both inside and outside production rather than 2 weeks if we only grew outside.

Kate harvesting tulips in the spring from a high tunnel.

Harvested tulips.