My tulips are flowering with extremely short stems / Flowers are not held above foilage
Not enough winter chill time. Tulips need to be refrigerated if winter temperatures do not regularly get to below 5c to encourage stems to elongate as they to grow.
Why are my Hyacinth flowers not held above the foliage?
In warmer areas Hyacinths need a chilling period the same as Tulips.
Why won’t my bulbs flower?
There could be many reasons why.
- Bulbs have not been 'fed' in a couple of years (Planting into a well prepared garden bed with a specialized bulb food or general purpose complete fertiliser, and again when flowering to allow plants enough energy to ‘set’ flowers for the next year.)
- Feeding has been with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. (This encourages production of leaves, but at the expense of flowers)
- Bulbs are planted in a shady area. (Most spring flowering bulbs need a half-day of sun at least to produce flowers. If planted in partial sun, longer.
- Bulbs are in competition for food and water with other plants. (Planting under evergreen trees or with other fast-growing plants limits the food they can get. Result: weak plants and no flowers.) If this is the case, pay special attention to a regular fertilizer and watering regime.
- Bulbs are planted in an area with poor drainage. Most bulbs love regular watering but must have good drainage. They do not do well where the water puddles. If this is the case, they are weakened by bacterias, fungus or other problems and will rot.
- Plant leaves were cut too soon or tied off the previous year. (All bulbs replenish their bulb for about six weeks after they bloom. The bulbs should be fed at this point and watered in dry areas for about this long after blooming. The leaves should not be cut off or blocked from sun until they start to lose their green and turn yellow. This signifies the completion of the bulb rebuilding process, and it is then safe to remove foliage or dig up.
- Bulbs may be stressed from transplanting. (Some varieties seem to skip a year of blooming if dug and replanted in a different environment. Some varieties bought in from one climate may have a difficult period of adjustment to a vastly different climate. They may bloom the first year off the previous year's bulb, but then be unable to adequately build a flower for the following year.
- Growing conditions the previous Spring / Summer may have been inhospitable - the reformation of the bulb was affected. (An early heat wave may have shut down bulb rebuilding before it was complete. The bulbs may have been grown in a smallish pot without adequate feeding or protection from heat and cold.)
- Bulbs may have been growing in the same spot for many years and need dividing. After a few years of strong growth and multiplication many bulbs need to be divided. Do this by gently digging around the clump once foliage is brown and lifting bulbs out of the ground. Separate and plant about 12-15 cm apart, 2-3 times the depth of the original bulbs. Ensure fertilizer is added to the soil at planting time. Bulbs will probably not flower for another full season after doing this.
- Many bulbs require a cool winter to enable them to set adequate roots and grow strong stems. If winter temperatures do not go below 4 C, the bulbs may need to be chilled for 4 weeks before planting. Bulbs in this group are: Tulips, Hyacinths, Crocus and Daffodils.
- In warmer climates it is often usual for many spring flowering bulbs to be treated as annuals (flowers diminish year after year). This is because the weather warms up very quickly and does not allow the plants adequate time to ‘set’ flowers for the following season.
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