How to grow tulips at home

Tulips are very beautiful and popular flowers that will not leave anyone indifferent. Their homeland is Central Asia. In wildlife, these unpretentious bulbous plants grow beautifully in deserts and steppes, on mountain slopes, in climates with cold winters and dry summers. Cultivated varieties of tulips have a huge variety of colors and shapes: peony, lilac, multi-flowered, etc. In addition to external spectacularity, they have excellent quality - tulips can be grown at any time of the year in your apartment. You do not need to create greenhouse conditions. It is enough to have a flower pot with soil and a bulb.

What varieties of tulips are suitable for home growing

Varietal tulips are unusually beautiful, but at the same time capricious and demanding on growing conditions. Therefore, for home distillation, it is better to choose simple low-growing varieties. These include the following:

1. Greig's Tulip. Has a beautiful goblet-shaped flower. A distinctive feature is wide leaves with a motley colored pattern. The color of the bud can be either monophonic or two-tone. Petals are pointed in shape. Greig's tulip exudes a delicate delicate aroma.
2. Foster Tulip. He laid the foundation for the Darwin hybrid. The length of the stem rarely exceeds 15 cm. It has bright shades and is resistant to viruses.
3. Tulip Parade. Has a large goblet bud. The flower has a red tint with orange veins; it remains unopened even in the sun. It reproduces well.
4. Crystal Beauty and Fringed Apeldoorn varieties are ideal if you want to please relatives for the New Year. They are both terry and fringed. The shades of the flower are very diverse: from red-orange to purple-violet.
5. Christmas grade Marvel can be grown not only in the room, but also on the balcony. It has a goblet shape and a very beautiful raspberry shade with a white border.
6. Variety Lustige Battle. It has the shape of a bowl, the color is bright red with a white border. It reproduces very well, ideal for winter distillation.
7. The Dutch variety Scaboro will blossom exactly by March 8, if planted in late September - early October. The flower is large, bright orange with a yellow border-corner.
8. Variety Apeldoorn Elite is widely disclosed, like a poppy. It has a spectacular orange color with a yellow trim around the edge of the petal. Blooms for International Women's Day.

How is the tulip bulb

The tulip bulb is actually a modified shoot. In the center of the bulb is the inflorescence in its infancy, from above it is protected by scales, which form the bulb. Tulips are self-renewing plants. Despite the fact that after flowering, it dies, the buds of daughter flowers begin to develop in the bulb. If the faded stem is picked in time, all the nutrients will go to the bulb. She digs out, the "children" are separated from the maternal fetus, which dies. Thus, from one bulb 3-4 new flowers will be obtained.

The life cycle of a tulip depends on natural conditions, so it is quite realistic to create an artificial microclimate suitable for the growth and flowering of tulips. Knowing the features of growing and caring for these beautiful flowers, you can create a botanical garden at home even in the middle of winter.

Growing tulips for the New Year

Whatever New Year's gift would be made, a bouquet of fresh flowers in any case will bring unimagined joy. Moreover, if a bouquet of tight strong flowers will stand in a pot with earth one and a half to two weeks. Care should be taken in the fall. How to prepare for distillation? Planting bulbs for New Year's flowers should be in October, following certain recommendations.

1. First you need to prepare the soil. It must be wet. Ready-made soils for onion plants are sold, but it is better to make a substrate yourself. Mix half a liter of river sand with the same volume of humus. Add a liter of turf and ash there. Such a composition of the substrate is necessary to retain moisture in it, because the bulb does not need nutrients from the soil, they are already accumulated in it.
2. Pour drainage (expanded clay) at the bottom of the pot or box and pour 2/3 of the soil.
3. Lay the bulbs fairly tightly, but so that they do not touch each other.
4. Fill the bulbs completely so that the tops are not exposed.
5. Put the pot in a cold place, for example, on a glazed balcony or on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator (if it is a small pot). The temperature there should not drop to 5 ° C. Do not cover the ground with anything; keep an eye on maintaining the moisture level.
6. 2 weeks before the celebration, bring the crate of bulbs into the room. During this time, they will take root. Do not put the box on the sunny windowsill, it is better to put it on the floor when the window faces the south side. If this is not possible, cover the sprouted bulbs with paper caps.
7. A week before the scheduled event, put the box on a well-lit window sill. If there is little light, use phytolamps so that the daylight hours for flowers are 10-12 hours.
8. Water the flowers every day warmed up to room temperature with water (preferably melt snow) and feed with calcium nitrate.

Growing tulips by March 8

Tulips are a traditional gift for International Women's Day, which symbolizes femininity and the onset of spring. Flower shops on the eve of the holiday earn half of the annual revenue. So why not please yourself or your loved ones with flowers grown at home? Material for distillation of spring tulips practically does not differ from preparation for growing winter flowers. However, planting bulbs should occur in January, taking into account the fact that it takes 8 weeks to root.

1. The soil is prepared in the same way as for the "winter" bulbs (a mixture of sand, turf and humus).
2. In spring, microbes and bacteria show their activity. Preliminarily, for disinfection, the bulbs are placed in a potassium permanganate solution for half an hour.
3. The flower box is filled with a layer of drainage and the soil is laid out 1/3. Bulbs are laid on it, compacting the soil. Do watering. The soil is again laid on top, completely covering the bulbs.
4. Place the box on the balcony for 8 weeks to root. Watering is done weekly.
5. When shoots appear, the box is transferred to the room and placed on a well-lit window sill. So that the stems do not stretch, shoots are accustomed to light gradually, closing the window with paper.
6. Tulips are fed fertilizer for indoor plants.

How to grow tulips without soil

Tulips grown without soil look simply luxurious and in their characteristics are in no way inferior to plants expelled in the ground.

• Prepare a clear glass vase, pebbles and purified water.
• Wrap the onion in paper and place on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
• Add pebbles to the bottom and pour water on 1/3 of the vase.
• Put the onion so that only the roots touch the water. The bulb itself should not touch the water.
• From above, also sprinkle a handful of stones on it.
• Place the vase on the balcony for a month.
• Then transfer to the room, and after 2-3 weeks you will receive a flower in a bud.

How to feed tulips for better growth and lush flowering

Bulbous flowers grow regardless of the season (even in winter in severe frost) just because all the important processes take place inside the bulb. Therefore, it is important to nourish the plant not only during flowering, but also the bulb itself before planting in the ground.

1. Heteroauxin is a potassium salt with the phytohormone of the auxin family, which promotes the growth of the plant itself and its root system. It is produced in the form of tablets. It can be used when propagating an adult bulb. After dissolving 1 tablet of heteroauxin in a liter of water, the undivided bulb with the “children” is put into solution for 15-24 hours. This procedure will cause active root growth, while untreated bulbs give 2-3 roots. The more roots and the thicker they are, the more chances the “children” have to survive. Bulbs are also kept in a solution of the drug before planting for better rooting.
2. The liquid drug Narcissus increases the resistance of tulips to diseases and microorganisms, heals small wounds on the bulb, and destroys the spores of pathogenic fungi. A drug of natural origin, the main active component of chitosan is an extract from the shell of crustaceans. Absorbs radionuclides, pesticides, salts of heavy metals, stimulating the production of immunity and protective enzymes. The use of the drug accelerates germination by a week. The plant is fed with a solution of ½ cap of Narcissus per liter of water by watering under the root every 2 weeks. It is also recommended to spray an already adult plant from a spray bottle with the same frequency.
3. The natural growth regulator Zircon is made from echinacea purpurea extract, known for its immunostimulating properties. The drug will help tulip bulbs to adapt to new conditions (before removing bulbs from the balcony to the room), it will have an antioxidant effect. If it is impossible to create an optimal microclimate for tulips (moist air and soil, indirect sunlight, a lot of light), then Zircon will protect the plant from possible diseases. Flowering due to Zircon will not suffer, the buds will form large, tight. One capsule of the drug is dissolved in 5 liters of water for root nutrition.
4. The liquid preparation MisterCvet Universal is suitable for feeding all indoor plants, including bulbs. It contains macroelements (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus), microelements (magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper), phytohormones, minerals and amino acids. Promotes superior flowering, rapid growth and healthy appearance of tulips. 1 cap of the drug is dissolved in a liter of water for root dressing. Promotes the formation of a large stem, large bulky bud and bright color of the flower. Feeding is carried out every 2 weeks. The solution is suitable for all domestic plants.

Tulips are convenient in that they are unpretentious, and they can be grown almost the whole year. It is not recommended to choose exotic varieties for home distillation (parrot, pion-shaped or lilac-colored varieties), because they are capricious and demanding on the microclimate. A short sturdy stalk will look much better than a long and thin one. It should be noted that the color of a tulip grown at home will not be as bright as that of a flower grown on a garden plot. However, with proper care and in your apartment, you can admire unusually beautiful flowers and inhale their aroma for 2 weeks, even when there is severe frost and snowdrifts outside the window.

Video: planting tulip bulbs in boxes for forcing