How to Care For Potted Tulips

Tulips do very well in pots and tubs, but to get the best bloom you need to make sure you give the bulbs everything they need. The size and quality of the pot, the type, and quality of the soil, and the way the bulbs are planted all play a part in how well your tulips grow and bloom, whether you grow them indoors or outdoors. Before you start planting the tulip, you need to consider the following aspects:

• Since this is a plant native to temperate climates, you must first expose the bulbs to a cold period to simulate the autumn climate. To do this, it is enough to put them in the refrigerator for a few months before planting.
  
  
• It is important to plant tulip bulbs in containers that are large enough. If you just want to grow a few bulbs and treat them like annuals, or if you want them to grow outside and come back every year, the size of the pot you use will depend on your intended use. The recommended size for about 3 or 4 tulip bulbs is between 20 cm and 25 cm in diameter and between 30 cm and 40 cm in depth.
  
  
• The pot must have holes in the bottom to facilitate drainage, otherwise fungi may attack the bulb.
  
  
• As for the substrate, first, place some stones or gravel at the bottom to improve drainage. And secondly, you need to choose a very porous substrate that allows to retain moisture, but completely drains the water.
  
  
• Substrates for pots based on perlite or vermiculite are recommended. These are mineral materials that easily retain water and also promote aeration. You can mix your own potting mix, or use your favorite store-bought mix.
  
  
• With this substrate, it is recommended to fill about a little more than half of the pot, keeping a portion for later covering the bulbs.

Tulips are generally easy to plant and do not require any special treatment, except that, as mentioned above, they must be left in the cold for about ten weeks. However, to achieve the best result, you should follow these instructions:

1. Place the bulb so that the base, or the flattest part from which the roots will grow, is facing down and embedded in the soil or substrate.
   
   
2. The distance between the bulbs should not be less than 2 cm, otherwise they will not grow normally, and the flowering will be weak.
   
   
3. When you have placed all the bulbs in the pot, cover them with the remaining substrate so that they are buried about 5 cm deep, and water abundantly so that the substrate is very moist.
   
   
4. You just have to wait until the roots form and the stem emerges from the ground.

Planting tulip bulbs in containers is not much different from planting them in the garden, with a few important differences. You can ignore standard plant spacing instructions when planting tulips in containers. Just make sure that they do not touch each other, as this can lead to rot.

Whether indoors or outdoors, for tulips to develop well, the temperature must vary between 15 ºC and 20 ºC and never fall below 5 ºC, otherwise the plant will get sick and have difficulty recovering.

If the temperature in your garden is higher or lower than what we have mentioned, then it is best to keep your plant indoors.

Tulips are sunny plants and need plenty of light to be healthy. Furthermore, they can tolerate direct sun very well. Tulips can also do well in partial shade as long as there is good ambient light nearby.

As a rule of thumb, it is better to keep tulips outside in full sun. However, if you live in a place where it is cool and there are only a few hours of sunlight a day, then it is better to bring the pot indoors. Keep in mind that if you keep the bulbs indoors, you need to place the pot near a window or in a place with good lighting.

The frequency of watering depends on whether we keep our bulbs indoors or outdoors. In the first case, you need to water 2 or 3 times a week. If the bulbs are outside, watering is not necessary as long as it rains more or less regularly. Sufficient water is especially important for tulips in early spring and late winter, because it helps them to prepare for flowering.

The duration of tulip flowering depends largely on the variety of tulip we planted. But sooner or later the petals will wither, and the leaves will turn yellow along with the stem. When this happens, we need to wait about 5 or 6 weeks until the entire plant is yellow. At this time, we have two options:

First, we can remove the wilted part of the plant and dig up the bulbs to store them in a cool and dry place until they are planted again next year.

Secondly, we can leave the bulbs in the pot as long as we change the substrate to provide our tulips with new nutrients. But if we leave them on the ground, we need to put the pot outside to ensure the cold period already mentioned.

The above steps and considerations will help us successfully grow tulips in pots, a magnificent plant with eye-catching flowers that will brighten up our homes.

You may also be interested in this other article where we talk about 25+ white flowering plants for the garden.

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