Expert: Long Island Gardener - 3/20/2007

Question
I am a passionate lover of tulips and have been planting successfully for the last five years.  I usually plant at least 100  new bulbs every year and remove all the old ones.  For the first time this year my tulips have very short or no stems.  I wonder if this is due to the fact that I live in the South of England and we have had a very warm winter with temperatures not really falling below five degrees centigrade and the average temperature being above ten degrees centigrade as well as it being a very wet winter.  All precautions were taken against snails and other insects

Answer
You are on the right track when you wondered about the warm, wet winter, Pauline.

Gardeners in the Southwest -- Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona -- deal with this problem all the time.  They have your mild winter on a regular basis.

Without several weeks of pre-chilling, Tulips cannot bloom properly.  I have not met anyone who can explain the biochemical mechanism for this yet, but it is generally agreed that stem length is one of many things that will go wrong when cold exposure is not provided in quantity and quality.

Most Tulip hybrids need a minimum 6 weeks' chill.  Stick your potted bulbs in the refrigerator on the higher setting to accomplish this.  Make sure they are not too wet or they will rot.

Subsequent blooming from bulbs left in the ground never lives up to the first year's show.  I suspect you know that already because you re-plant every year.

For the record, many bulb suppliers offer pre-chilled bulbs to avoid this very problem.  Alas, a winter where the weather rarely dips below 40 degrees F, where the average was 50 degrees, is way to warm for Tulips.

My sympathies.