Selecting Tulip Bulbs

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen on behalf of Expert Village. Selecting tulip bulbs can be quite a challenge if you don't know what you're doing. There are some easy rules that you can follow to make your purchase very successful. A tulip bulb is much like fruit or vegetables so when you're going into the grocery store and you're picking out garlic or onions or any other type of fruit or vegetable you always pick something that's firm, looks alive, no moldy spots and something that's going that appeals to you. And with tulips, they look more like a Hershey's kiss candy so you make sure the tip's coming up and this one looks good, there's no mold spots, its firm, it looks fleshy underneath and it looks like its ready to plant. This bulb on the other hand has a lot of mold on it and the top of it looks kind of soft. The bottom of it looks like it might still be ok and it still has a baby on it and the baby looks like it might be ok. So giving those choices, I would still plant it because you still got a baby it might not do a whole lot this year, but I think in the years to come you'll still get a flower. This bulb has a little bit of mold on it but it still has a star on it so I think its still ok, I would still plant it and enjoy it and its going to come up no matter what. If you have a tulip bulb that's completely covered with mold and it looks really soft all parts of it, I wouldn't grow, I would just throw it in the compost pile and sometimes it might still come up, sometimes it won't, but I wouldn't risk 'cause this one's really soft, its kind of mushy, so this one's not going to be any good. So when selecting your tulip bulbs, make sure it looks healthy, firm, for some sign of life and there's not a lot of mold on it and that way you'll have a successful garden and you can plant them and they'll come back and bloom this year and for years to come. Next we're going to talk about where to plant tulip bulbs."