Archive for the 'Tulips' Category

Multi-Colored Tulips

Tulips are one of the most attractive springtime flowers for the few weeks that they’re in bloom. Tulips come in many different colors and different mixes of colors on a single flower. I think they make a particularly eye-catching display when different colors of tulips are grown together. Each bulb only generates one flower per year, though.

I grow tulips as short lived perennials. I’ve been planting tulip bulbs in the same garden bed (shown in the pictures above) every fall for about 4 years. Each bulb blooms for 1 to 3 spring seasons before it fades away and eventually dies. The Bay Area is probably not cold enough to be an ideal climate for tulips, so I replenish our tulip bed every fall with a new planting of bulbs. It seems much easier than digging up old bulbs and refrigerating them as some people suggest. Last fall, I planted about 50 bulbs that included a mix of different colors.

I don’t fertilize our tulips, and I rarely water them. Usually, rains in winter and early spring are enough for them. This past winter was especially dry, so I did water the bed a few times.

April 15 2012 | Tulips | Comments Off on Multi-Colored Tulips

More spring flowers

These are pictures of some of the spring flowers that have been blooming in our yard the last few weeks.

Red camelia bush.

Lavender alyogyne bushes with blue lithodora and white alyssum underneath.

Dark purple tulips.

April 11 2010 | Alyogyne and Camellias and Lithodora and Tulips | Comments Off on More spring flowers

Spring Bulbs

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These pictures show some of the spring bulbs that have been blooming in our garden in the past few weeks. The hyacinths in the top picture were stunning at their peak about two weeks ago when I took this picture, especially the blue ones. Right now, the multicolored tulips in the second and third pictures are in full bloom.

Spring bulbs such as tulips, hyacinths, dutch irises, and daffodils are so beautiful and fun to grow. They make a wonderful landscape display for a few weeks in the springtime, because they tend to bloom at the same time and have such vibrant colors. I have gotten rave reviews from the neighbors about the color display.

Our climate doesn’t seem to get enough cold weather in the wintertime to stimulate tulips and hyacinths to continue blooming year after year. Freezes here are infrequent. Some sources say that one should dig up these bulbs and put them in the refrigerator for a month. Instead, I have been growing them as annuals, replanting them each fall and discarding some of the old ones. Our hyacinths usually bloom again more than one year, but they produce less flowers each year.

The fourth picture above showing the purple tulips and daffodils was taken in March 2008 of the same flower bed. I decided to diversify the color range of tulips I planted for this year’s display.

The same daffodils bloomed again back in February this year and have already faded away. Daffodils don’t seem to need much winter chill. They will bloom again year after year without any special care in our climate. I have seen them blooming along roads and highways in our area, obviously growing wild.

April 11 2009 | Daffodils and Hyacinths and Tulips | Comments Off on Spring Bulbs