The different double, French, and lily-flowered tulip forms Sandra Sigman used to create her “completely tulip arrangement were grounded in a pedestal container for The Stevens-Coolidge Place’s 2020 Tulip Festival. Kindra Clineff’s image
An exquisite centerpiece for a meal with a purple theme features lilacs along with several different kinds of tulips that were cut from Carolyne Roehm’s garden. View more articles from Carolyne Roehm’s A Garden Home.
Instead of a few isolated stems scattered about, Willow Crossley prefers large bunches of tulips in antique jugs and old pottery cachepots. Imagination of Emma Mitchell
A grandiose dining room created by Frank Webb and Matthew White is complemented with uncomplicated bouquets of white tulips tucked between blue and white chinoiserie. The interior was accented with rich blue velvet seats and covered in Gracie’s Ming Villagescenic wallpaper, a pattern inspired by panels made in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thanks to White Webb
White tulips, ‘Green Eyed Beauty’ garden roses, hyacinths, hellebores, variegated ivy, and moss are included in Tom Mathieu’s green and white “garden in a box” arrangement. Jessica Glynn’s image
Lewis Miller describes his approach to flower design in his book Styling Nature (Rizzoli New York, 2016). These parrot tulips serve as a helpful reminder that an arrangement’s silhouette will evolve with time. The flowers in an arrangement will have changed shape by day three because it is a living thing. Don Freeman’s photograph
In an extract from Margot Shaw’s Living Floral, designer Mimi Brown provides instructions for putting up a simple tulip arrangement to spruce up your house. Check out the detailed instructions. Variety of tulips: Crossfire, Jan Buis, Apricot and Cerise Parrots, and Residence. Becky Luigart-image Stayner’s
Patrick Dunne, an antique, designer, and all-around jovial person from New Orleans, only needs to visit his store, Lucullus, to find intriguing floral vases like this 19th-century pitcher holding French tulips. Stephen Young’s image
In a pink flower arrangement by floral designer Kate Holt, parrot and fringed tulips dance with ranunculus, Japanese sweet peas, California lilacs, honeysuckle vine, and Pieris japonica. Layers, lines, and shapes are all like pieces of a soft, breathing puzzle to her. Elizabeth Messina’s image
Carolyne Roehm provided a feast of fruit and shortbread cookies along with a bouquet of red and yellow “Flair” tulips for one of her home visitors. In A Garden Home with Carolyne Roehm, explore the grounds of Weatherstone, Roehm’s Connecticut residence.
Butter Wakefield, a well-known garden designer, used unconventional Christmas hues to decorate her West London house. Here, she placed orange tulips from the flower market within a pink lusterware cup. Clive Nichols’ image
On a wooden “trattoria table,” rustic clay pots brimming with tulips, lavender, roses, hellebores, and bay leaves are at home. Sheila Goode took the image. Nouveau Flowers designed the flowers.
Jane Scott Hodges, a hostess in New Orleans, sets the scene for a get-together with friends at her residence in the Garden District. The flowers at each place setting are colored by the sun. A glass of plain, flashy tulips is placed on this plate. Don’t forget Hodges’ advice about table linens. Kerry McCaffety’s image
Steve Bales hung tulips above a 16-foot-long dining table covered in mirrors, which reflected the blossoms hanging above, for a wedding where he used only yellow flowers.
Tips for Growing Tulips
Tulips should be planted when the temperature is 60 degrees or lower on average. (In the North, this might be September, and in the South, it might be December.)
Consult your local cooperative extension agency to determine whether you need to pre-chill your bulbs before planting. To prevent bulbs from flowering if you pre-chill them in the refrigerator, keep them away from vegetables. Vegetables release a gas that can do this.
pH: Soil with a pH of 6 to 6.5 is preferred by bulbs. Before planting, get the soil tested to see if lime or aluminum sulfate should be added.
Plant in a place with plenty of sunlight and well-drained soil. Bulbs of tulip decay in stagnant water.
Try this advice for plant markers from Wendy Walker, the Garden Club of Virginia’s horticulture chairman: At the end of the fall season, Wendy adds, “I started buying the sad-looking, on-sale pansies and utilizing them as markers for bulb plantings. When I start transplanting seedlings, these living placeholders not only prevent me from cutting through bulbs, but they also grow full and beautiful in the spring, providing the perfect carpet for bulbs. “Southern Favorites in Springtime Gardens” has more advice from Wendy on gardening.
To promote healthier bulbs and a somewhat longer bloom time, fertilize with a bulb fertilizer in the fall and early spring.
After planting, water your bulbs. Unless you reside in a region that is inherently dry, you shouldn’t need to water them again.
Tips for Harvesting & Arranging Tulips
According to flower grower Natasha McCrary of 1818 Farms in Mooresville, Alabama, carefully dig up the bulbs with the blooms still attached to prepare them for cool storage. “After securing the bulbs, I pack the tulips into boxes to be kept dry in our fridge. Dry refers to their absence from water. The tulip can be kept in the cooler for up to a month because it is still attached to its food source. In order to keep the stems in the crate erect in the cooler, she additionally ties a bungee cord around them. According to her, this stimulates tulips to straighten and lengthen their stems.
Immediately immerse cut stems in water. When buying tulips from a store, make sure to cover the cut stems in moist paper towels to prevent drying out before you get them home.
Using a sharp knife or flower snips, cut the stems of each tulip at an angle. The tulips will live longer as a result, and it will also be simpler to add them to the arrangement.
By gently peeling them away from the stem and pushing back any undesired leaves, you can remove them.
Pulling back and gently peeling away undesirable tulip leaves from the stem will remove them.
You can wire it around the stem from top to bottom to hold a drooping tulip upright if you have one. (Of course, downward bending stems can be exactly what you’re looking if you’re going for a realistic or artistic aesthetic.)
Prick each tulip through the stem right below its bloom with a straight pin to prevent the petals from opening up any further.
Mimi Brown delicately reflexes tulip petals. Becky Luigart-image Stayner’s
Try letting tulips fully open for a dramatic effect. I enjoy letting them pop like that, says Lauryl Lane, a floral designer based in California. Of course, after they’ve fully opened, they don’t last very long, but if you plan it just right, they make magnificent event arrangements.
Finally, it’s not in your head! In the vase, your cut tulip stems will keep growing.
Our Favorite Tulip Quote
“I adore tulips more than any other spring flower; they represent alert joy and orderly grace and, when placed next to a hyacinth, resemble a young girl who is healthy and just out of the bath next to a hefty woman whose every movement fills the room with the scent of patchouli. Is there anything in the world more endearing than the vivacious way they hold up their small faces to the sun? Their light, delicate aroma is refinement in and of itself. Although I’ve heard them described as brazen and flaunting, they appear to me to be modest grace itself, constantly vigilant to take advantage of life to the fullest and unafraid to look the sun or anyone else above them in the face. From Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim (1898)