It’s time to consider getting the tulips ready for the fall but first, there is a funny (well to me it is funny) story about the guy who planted 200 bulbs last fall and had three of them actually grow in his little garden at the front of his house. However, there were tulips popping up all over the neighborhood in places where you would least expect them. Turns out some squirrels must have decided to help him by digging up the bulbs and planting them in their own special little places.

Tulips bulbs are hardy and I know that they have survived my attempts at working up the garden with my handy-dandy garden claw tool and spade. I’ve replanted some pretty badly gashed bulbs and they grew just fine.

But I digress. What you need to know about tulip bulbs is that the bigger they are they bigger the tulip will be because the energy that goes into the flower comes from the bulb. A scrawny bulb won’t have much energy.

Plant your bulbs where they will get a minimum of six hours of sun a day. Also, make sure the soil is not too dense. Heavy soil just makes it hard for the tulips to push themselves through to the surface. Plant the bulbs so that you have five bulbs per square foot of garden. If your bed is four feet by four feet, then you will need 80 bulbs.

As a rule of thumb, plant the bulbs seven or eight inches deep. In light, sandy soil you can plant them deeper than in heavy soil. If you want to be precise about the depth, you should measure the bulb’s diameter at the widest spot and triple it and bury the bulb so that the top of it is as deep as triple its width. If the bulb is two inches wide at the widest spot, then you bury it so that its top is six inches below the surface. The bigger the bulb, the deeper it goes. For me, it’s just easier to say plant them seven inches deep in heavier soil and eight inches deep in light soil.

Cover the bulbs and water them well. Then just sit back and wait for spring.

By: Esmee McCornall
Esmee McCornall is a 'Gardoholic' publisher and writer. She recently published a guide called "Tips and Tricks to Create the Garden You Always Wanted". You can download a free copy at http://www.gardensandflowers.net/Free_Report.html or visit some cool gardening video's at gardensandflowers.net/Video_Gallery.html