A frequently asked question from our customers is why the Tulip does not bloom for several years like so many other flower bulbs do. The main reason that the Tulip does not survive so well in your garden is that our climate differs too much from the climate where the Tulip originally comes from; the Middle East and mountain areas around the Caspian Sea.

In Western Europe there is a moderate maritime climate where the summers are not really hot, and the winters are not really cold. In the areas where the Tulip originated the extremes are much greater, winters are cold but especially the summers are scorching hot.

Tulipa tsimganica sold along the road in Uzbekistan.

And it is precisely this hot summer that the Tulip needs to survive well. At the Secondary Horticulture School in Lisse we were already taught; Good Tulips are grown in the shed during the summer.

The high summer temperatures are not only crucial for the good development of the Tulip that will bloom in your garden in the spring, the development and growth of the Tulip bulb in the ground is also stimulated by these warm temperatures.

After harvesting in June, flower bulb growers store their tulip bulbs at a temperature of 25 C, which they then slowly reduce to 20 C in October.

Tulipa greigii in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kazakhstan

So if you want to enjoy your tulips for several years, you will have to dig them up in June, as soon as the leaves have died, and then store them at a constant temperature of around 20 C until planting time in October.

But if you do this, the chance of success is really there. The proof is provided by members of the Wakefield and Northern England Tulip society who succeed in getting very old Rembrandt Tulips to bloom again every year.

There are however a few Tulips that can survive reasonably well in the Western European climate if you leave them in the ground. I can't promise that they will do as well as a Daffodil, but if you are lucky enough to have them in your garden they can flower for several years without you having to dig them up.

These are Tulips of the type 'fosteriana' and of the type 'Darwin hybrid' Tulips of the type 'fosteriana' and 'Darwin hybrid' I have often seen grow fairly well. But you will also see these Tulips disappear over the years if you leave them in the ground. If you want to try it, the following Tulips that we offer in the Fluwel webshop are of the type fosteriana and Darwin hybrid:

• American Dream
• Apricot Impression
• Beauty of Spring
• Big Ups
• Blushing Impression
• Design Impression
• Disneyland Paris
• Exotic Emperor
• Gentle Giants
• Red Globe
• Glow Motion
• Hakuun
• Hot Hot Hot
• Janis Joplin
• Prosecco
• Purissima
• Tang Dynasty

Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek