Getting Started
Welcome, fellow tulip fanciers and hobbyist plant breeders! ^_^ I begin this chronicle of my new hobby in Fall 2009. Growing new tulips from seed takes around 5 years, so don't expect results any time soon. ^_^; But I wanted to document what I did to begin my new hobby.
First I looked up how to grow tulips. I live in zone 6 (Pennsylvania) which is a good zone for tulips because the winter is cold enough to trigger them to bloom again next year. I knew this, because when I was a child my family had a patch of red and yellow 'classic' tulips (the kind where the bottom inside of the cup is black). Some of them bloomed every year, except that the rabbits tended to eat them. Squirrels also find tulip bulbs tasty. I, luckily, have a part of my yard which is surrounded by cement retaining walls on 3 sides and a sidewalk on the fourth, and not near any trees, so rabbits and squirrels don't usually go there. The sharp drainage and somewhat colder soil temperatures of a raised area are supposed to be good for tulips too. So I used a hand tiller to remove all the weeds from this area and churn up the soil to a depth of approximately 8 inches. Tulips like to be planted deeper than most other bulbs.
Then came the fun but expensive $_$ part: ordering breeding stock! Many modern tulips are hybrids, and some are 'species' tulips (which means, not the standard species for that type of plant, but a cousin species which is probably not cross-fertile). For ease of breeding, it would be sensible to start with all one species of tulip. I didn't, because I couldn't resist a few of the unique-looking species tulips, but I don't really expect to have luck breeding those with my standard tulips, I just wanted to have a few in my garden. Anyway I made a list of the colors and shapes that tulips come in, and tried to plant 8 bulbs of each (although due to different stores selling them in different amounts, of some I got 6, others 10.
*Insert List of Tulip Varieties Purchased Here*
I planted the tulips as per the directions, and added some fertilizer on top of the soil. The dirt there was already decent topsoil, otherwise I would have needed to add some. I was planning on squirrel-proofing the bulb beds by staking chicken wire down over them, but the squirrels didn't seem willing to dig more that 2 inches deep, and all the bulbs were 6+ inches down, so the chicken wire seemed unnecessary. I'll keep an eye on them, I can always cover them if the squirrels become more enthusiastic diggers as the weather gets colder.
Meanwhile I decided I wanted to try forcing some tulips indoors over the winter. This is the only practical way to crossbreed two types of tulips that normally bloom a month apart. Also,growing tulips indoors with a shorter winter simulated by refrigeration produces adult bulbs from seed faster, and I would need to start any seeds I got indoors before moving the bulblets outdoors. So, I cleared a spot in my basement where it stays relatively warm and dry, bought a metal shelf from Lowes, and also bought 3 florescent lighting fixtures with 'sunlight' bulbs and a timer which would automatically turn the lights on in the morning and off in the evening to simulate day. Also some trays of peat seed-starting pots. Oh and potting soil and pots/water trays for the mature tulip bulbs I'll be forcing. All my tulip purchases together added up to $400 or so. And the digging/planting probably took 8 days total, but spread out as various orders of bulbs arrived in the mail. (One comment - don't order from Michigan Bulbs x_X When they were a month late on their expected delivery date they canceled my whole order, and I had to hurry and try to find those varieties from other sellers before they ran out of stock for the year)
*add pictures of shelf and bulb beds here*
First I looked up how to grow tulips. I live in zone 6 (Pennsylvania) which is a good zone for tulips because the winter is cold enough to trigger them to bloom again next year. I knew this, because when I was a child my family had a patch of red and yellow 'classic' tulips (the kind where the bottom inside of the cup is black). Some of them bloomed every year, except that the rabbits tended to eat them. Squirrels also find tulip bulbs tasty. I, luckily, have a part of my yard which is surrounded by cement retaining walls on 3 sides and a sidewalk on the fourth, and not near any trees, so rabbits and squirrels don't usually go there. The sharp drainage and somewhat colder soil temperatures of a raised area are supposed to be good for tulips too. So I used a hand tiller to remove all the weeds from this area and churn up the soil to a depth of approximately 8 inches. Tulips like to be planted deeper than most other bulbs.
Then came the fun but expensive $_$ part: ordering breeding stock! Many modern tulips are hybrids, and some are 'species' tulips (which means, not the standard species for that type of plant, but a cousin species which is probably not cross-fertile). For ease of breeding, it would be sensible to start with all one species of tulip. I didn't, because I couldn't resist a few of the unique-looking species tulips, but I don't really expect to have luck breeding those with my standard tulips, I just wanted to have a few in my garden. Anyway I made a list of the colors and shapes that tulips come in, and tried to plant 8 bulbs of each (although due to different stores selling them in different amounts, of some I got 6, others 10.
*Insert List of Tulip Varieties Purchased Here*
I planted the tulips as per the directions, and added some fertilizer on top of the soil. The dirt there was already decent topsoil, otherwise I would have needed to add some. I was planning on squirrel-proofing the bulb beds by staking chicken wire down over them, but the squirrels didn't seem willing to dig more that 2 inches deep, and all the bulbs were 6+ inches down, so the chicken wire seemed unnecessary. I'll keep an eye on them, I can always cover them if the squirrels become more enthusiastic diggers as the weather gets colder.
Meanwhile I decided I wanted to try forcing some tulips indoors over the winter. This is the only practical way to crossbreed two types of tulips that normally bloom a month apart. Also,growing tulips indoors with a shorter winter simulated by refrigeration produces adult bulbs from seed faster, and I would need to start any seeds I got indoors before moving the bulblets outdoors. So, I cleared a spot in my basement where it stays relatively warm and dry, bought a metal shelf from Lowes, and also bought 3 florescent lighting fixtures with 'sunlight' bulbs and a timer which would automatically turn the lights on in the morning and off in the evening to simulate day. Also some trays of peat seed-starting pots. Oh and potting soil and pots/water trays for the mature tulip bulbs I'll be forcing. All my tulip purchases together added up to $400 or so. And the digging/planting probably took 8 days total, but spread out as various orders of bulbs arrived in the mail. (One comment - don't order from Michigan Bulbs x_X When they were a month late on their expected delivery date they canceled my whole order, and I had to hurry and try to find those varieties from other sellers before they ran out of stock for the year)
*add pictures of shelf and bulb beds here*