Tulips 2012

[Boyed]

Luc,
I enjoy to see all those lovely wee beauties in your rock garden.
Compared to my garden you can be very happy with the view frost damages, I lost tulip colonies this winter
Never had this before.

I don't think that the loos is related with frosts. Most of the tulips are very forst hardy. In my opinion, that is beacause of European climate specifics - mild wet winters. Especially for Middle Asian species it is not desirable. My Siberian collegues succesfully grow tulips in their area where the temperature during winter drops to -50 C (pus snow cover), everything is O.K. In my area the temp drops to -30 sometimes, but I never lost tulips due to forsts. The main reason, in my opinion, is excessive humidity during winter and strict changes of temperature at thas time.

[Janis Ruksans]

Oh Zhirair - I twice lost tulips just from frost. Once even the hardiest forms, inclusive old garden cultivars and even Darvin Hybrids. It was many years ago in my first garden but just after black frost something similar to that in Germany this winter. And on second case in my present garden I lost almost all species tulips. It was in soviet time and I didn't covered beds in autumn - couldn't buy peat moss and later was busy in my state job to collect dry leaves for mulching. Tulips can suffer. Sometimes in center is formed small replacement bulbs. When leaves die, harvest bulbs, dry them and later clean out small replacement bulbs. In such way you can save some stocks, but it is worth only with valuable stocks.
You perfectly noted - minus 50 C plus snow cover. Just snow cover protects bulbs from frost. We here have wet winters every year and it is not so dangerous as just black frost and especially sudden black frost aftyer warm first half of winter as it was this season. I lost many crocuses even in greenhouse but no one outside, where was snow cover.
Janis

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I think the problems with the tulips last Winter were because of the extremely warm and wet Autumn and January which made that plants were much more advanced than in a "normal" season.  At the end of January, leaves were out and even some flower buds were showing.... and then.... early February came the big freeze with temperatures going down to -10 or even -20° C in some areas which must have been very harmful, if not lethal to some plants... 

[Janis Ruksans]

I think the problems with the tulips last Winter were because of the extremely warm and wet Autumn and January which made that plants were much more advanced than in a "normal" season.  At the end of January, leaves were out and even some flower buds were showing.... and then.... early February came the big freeze with temperatures going down to -10 or even -20° C in some areas which must have been very harmful, if not lethal to some plants... 

You are right, Luc.
Janis

[Armin]

Zhirair,
I agree with Luc and Janis. In mild & wet winters I would expect more damages caused by fungus i.e. botrytis. Early growth started already in Nov., enhanced in Jan. after rainfalls in Dec...
In my area there were no snow falls at all who could protect bulbs from frost. Almost anything early growing and showing its noses close or above ground was visible hit by the black frost (up to -18°C on ground level in the nights). During the 2 weeks strong frost period the ice on ponds became up to 35 cm thick. Probably same or deeper happend to bare ground.

Probably underground shots became glued by the ice in the sandy soil of my raised beds and simply ruptured by the earth-moving due wide temperature changes (day/night, see graph). I could pull out shots of ~25 cm length of i.e. Hyacinthoides hispanica & non-scripta or complete shots with visible flower buds of Iris reticulata. All shots were ruptured & rotted just above the growing point of the bulbs (weakest point for pull forces).

Interestingly, I found more damage in sunny places then in shadow places. My thesis is that firstly, on sunny places growth was more enhanced over those growing in shadow, and secondly, greater earth-moving forces applied to the shots in the sunny places.
Also, i.e. crocus in the meadow got much less frost damage compared to those growing in raised beds.
Probably turf protected the crocus corms a bit.

Attached graphs show the 4 month records of temperature & rainfall from a local weather station. Total rainfall was 164 liter, lowest temp. was -16,4°C, hightest +18°C.

[johnw]

You perfectly noted - minus 50 C plus snow cover. Just snow cover protects bulbs from frost. We here have wet winters every year and it is not so dangerous as just black frost and especially sudden black frost aftyer warm first half of winter as it was this season. I lost many crocuses even in greenhouse but no one outside, where was snow cover.
Janis

Janis  - As you say nothing is better than snowcover.  Problem here is when we order it the shipment is always late. 

johnw

[Roma]

Tulipa urumiensis fighting its way through the weeds
Tulipa - is it saxatilis or bakeri?  It grows under Salix lanata - well drained but not very sunny.  Only one flower this year but usually a lot more.

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis  - As you say nothing is better than snowcover.  Problem here is when we order it the shipment is always late. 

johnw

Tulip bulbs you can keep at zero to minus 10 C without problems till spring and plant just as soil defreeze - as early as possible in spring. I experimented in my young years. I planted 50 bulbs of some cultivar ('Parade') in normal time at end of September and 50 left in unheated summerhouse where temperature inside dropped to minus 20 C. Those I planted in early Aprill, just as soil thaw. Both grew and bloomed, only spring plantings was around 7-10 cm shorter and bloomed a week latyer than those planted in autumn. Bulb crop was identical in both variants.
Janis

[Boyed]

Tulip bulbs you can keep at zero to minus 10 C without problems till spring and plant just as soil defreeze - as early as possible in spring. I experimented in my young years. I planted 50 bulbs of some cultivar ('Parade') in normal time at end of September and 50 left in unheated summerhouse where temperature inside dropped to minus 20 C. Those I planted in early Aprill, just as soil thaw. Both grew and bloomed, only spring plantings was around 7-10 cm shorter and bloomed a week latyer than those planted in autumn. Bulb crop was identical in both variants.
Janis

Janis, I parctice spring planting of tulips every year (the ones I grow in large pots on the roof of our garage) and it works very well. Exception are commercially grown Dutch bulbs, on which during winter storage different fungal deseases develop and many dye. Its true, spring planted bulbs are bit shorter and I also noticed that that have lower propagation rate, comparing to fall planted ones.

[FrazerHenderson]

Sometimes in center is formed small replacement bulbs.
Janis

Janis, I found examples of small replacement bulbs this year when cleaning out "blind" pots this weekend that had been destroyed by earlier excessive frosts (snow I like because of its insultation properties)

[FrazerHenderson]

some flowering tulips...

[Janis Ruksans]

some flowering tulips...

Oh, Frazer, I hate "flamed" tulips. So suspicious for virus infection. No, no, no! No one in my garden and collection.
Janis

[ArnoldT]

Tulipa altaica
Tulipa clusiana

[alpinelover]

Tulipa clusiana.

[Maggi Young]

Frankie, I've just been enjoying your superb Saxifraga photos , now I see your tulips are getting the same treatment. Lovely to see!