Expert: Long Island Gardener - 4/25/2007

Question
Hi!  I live in Atlanta, Georgia (grow zone 7) and I am new to this "gardening" experience.  I recently purchased about 200 tulip bulbs from michiganbulb.com and they are scheduled to arrive between May and October...
If they arrive in May will I be able to plant them and how DO you plant tulips?  I have heard upside down, close together, spaced apart, in cold weather, in hot weather...I NEED HELP!!!

Thanks

Answer
Michigan Bulb Company should not be sending you Tulip bulbs now.  Even on sale, these should be blooming.  If they are available, they may be old bulbs.

This is a lot of work, planting 200 bulbs -- a capital idea if I might say so, but you want these bulbs to bloom.  No one wants to go planting 200 of anything that won't bloom.  Sorry, I am just a skeptical New Yorker.

If however you happen to get viable (translation: healthy flowering) bulbs, you would dig a hole about 12 inches deep and plant them, pointy side facing up, 6 to 12 inches apart in the sunny part of a garden.  The soil should not be clay; it will rot the bulbs with all the moisture that accumulates.  A handful of bone meal for each bulb will build the soil and, if all goes well, release a slow, steady dose of Phosphorous that will feed the roots and flowers for years to come.

Tulips bloom in spring, then they go dormant and appear lifeless.  In their native habitat, they spend the summer totally dry, underground, in the cool soil of the mountains.  Plant yours next October.  And let me know what happens.  Best of luck, keep me posted.