The Great Tulip Experiment

The new blooms of the season will soon be with us.  The tulips are responding to the recent warmer temperatures, and I have gone from wondering if they were doing anything in their crates, to speculating about when they might burst.  They are putting on some wonderful growth, lovely strong foliage and so I’m now on the lookout for the first signs of budding.  I have almost 3,000 tulips planted in crates scattered around the garden and it’s very evident that each crate is responding slightly differently to growing conditions based on where they are located.  Some have been in a frosty micro-climate over the winter and therefore are taking longer to break ground, some have had more hours of daylight and so are more advanced with their growth.  Add into the mix that some tulips are bred to be mid-season bloomers and some are late, and it really is quite a relay race going on out in the garden.  As I don’t have a cooler, experiments like this are invaluable, as it really means I can stagger growth so I don’t have 3,000 tulips all bursting at once! Well, that’s the thought anyway!