Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tulip Time........


Pella, Iowa has a festival each year based on the tulips and their traditions from Holland.  Last year their tulips were bloomed and gone by the this time because of the warm weather.  This  year they say about 75% of the tulips will be out in time for the event.  Iowa has 3 maybe different zones when you base the info on how the flowers bloom.  My parents in southern Iowa would have their tulips and daffodils bloomed out by now, while the Pella area are in their peak of bloom.  Up here in north middle Iowa my tulips are just now opening. I am sure at the Minnesota border it is a different story.

My neighbor lady told me that tulips go back to being yellow after the bulbs get to be older.  I am assuming these bulbs were another color at some time as  a lot of my tulips are yellow.  I do have another bed of plants that are just now showing buds and I will share them with they are in full bloom.  They are cheap bulbs and they still are of different colors.

4 comments:

George said...

I didn't realize that tulips yellowed as they aged. That's very interesting. I probably don't have to worry about that since we have too many 'critters' that love to dine on tulip bulbs.

Anonymous said...

I have always admired tulips. I did not know that about the "yellow" either!

L. D. said...

I was told by a neighbor who was an experienced gardener that some tulip bulbs would revert back to their genetic origin as the years went on. I have no proof that it is true but maybe the small bulbs that keep being multiplied around the base tulip could become a yellow and the original dies off. I do remember seeing on some garden shows where the gardener would yank out his bulbs each year and put them in the compost each fall and start new one each year.

L. D. said...

I was told by a neighbor who was an experienced gardener that some tulip bulbs would revert back to their genetic origin as the years went on. I have no proof that it is true but maybe the small bulbs that keep being multiplied around the base tulip could become a yellow and the original dies off. I do remember seeing on some garden shows where the gardener would yank out his bulbs each year and put them in the compost each fall and start new one each year.

Bouquet