Growing Tulips Indoors

Selection

When you are preparing to force tulip bulbs indoors, you will want to choose the most healthy bulbs. Forcing tulips indoors is strenuous, and only the best will provide you with satisfactory results. Pick over your bulbs carefully. Search for bruises, softness and size. For the most part, larger bulbs will be the more hardy. Your soil will need to be able to drain well to ward off rot, but the pot will need to hold moisture well so that the bulb does not become overly dry. For this reason it is better to select a plastic or glass pot rather than ceramic or terra-cotta.

Requirements

When you are forcing your tulip bulbs, you will need a good balance of fertilization, moisture and drainage. A popular recipe for tulip forcing is one part potting soil, one part fertilizer or compost, and one part sand. This will allow the moisture to nurture the bulb, but not allow the moisture to pool and damage the bulb.
The pot should be about 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and at least 8 inches tall. You can force up to three bulbs in a pot this size. You will also want to have a spare refrigerator or a root cellar. Do not use your primary refrigerator, because you need a constant temperature and low light. Fruits stored in the refrigerator can also damage the progress of your tulip bulbs.

Chill

Mix your soil, and plant the bulbs with the root end facing down. You will want the flat side to be parallel with the side of the pot, the nose of the bulb to just barely peek above the soil and the bulbs evenly spaced apart. None of the bulbs should touch.
Place your bulbs in the root cellar or in the storage refrigerator so that they can be held at a temperature between 35 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit. The chilling time for your bulbs will be between 12 to 16 weeks. If possible, keep the temperature closer to 35 degrees Fahrenheit for the first three to five weeks, and allow the last few weeks to be closer to 48 degrees Fahrenheit.

Force

When the bulbs have been chilled, they will have developed a root system, so when they are brought indoors they are ready to spring up. Place the pots in a space that will maintain a temperature of about 50 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. This room should have lots of natural light, but do not allow the tulips to be placed in direct sunlight at first. When the shoots have achieved about 2 inches in height, then you can transfer them to direct sunlight. The plants will last longest if they are kept cool. Transfer the potted tulips into a cool (60 degrees or so Fahrenheit) and dark room when you are out of the house, or when you are off to bed for the evening.

Alternate Solution

If you do not have room to refrigerate your flower pots, then you can chill the bulbs themselves. This is not the preferred option, but it does have some satisfactory results. Place the selected bulbs inside of a paper bag (or individual bulbs inside of paper lunch-sized bags). Keep them in the crisper with no fruit in the refrigerator. Chill your tulip bulbs for six weeks, then plant them as above. Keep them in a dark room at approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to five weeks, then introduce into the lighted room as above to force blooms.