Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen from vanveenbulbs.com, and in this segment we're going to talk about when is the best time to plant tulip bulbs. Well theoretically, the best time to plant tulip bulbs is in the fall when the ground is cooled. You don't want the ground to be ninety-five degrees when you transplant em', because, or when you plant em', because then they can cook. But saying that, I have realized over the years that the best time to plant tulip bulbs is whenever you get your hands on em'. If you find them in a bag in your garage in January that's the best time to plant them. If you find them at a Farmer's Market in August that's the best time to plant them. And if you find them in February, March, April that's the best time to plant them. But they might take a year or two to get on a normal cycle, so the best time is to plant them in the fall, but if you plant em' at other times of the year you will never fail, especially in the northwest. And my other rule of thumb is my plants can move year round; so can I. My tulips survive in the ground year round and they come back no matter what I do, but I have em' in my raised beds with lilies, and calla lilies, and canna lilies, and other flowers that I am watering in the summertime. So, I plant them any time of the year, although the books do say fall, and I have never not had a beautiful tulip. So, plant tulips whenever you can get your hands on em', and make sure if it's the summertime that you give em' lots of water, and if you plant em' in the wintertime make sure they stay in raised beds so they don't get too wet. And when you plant a tulip make sure and plant it about three inches deeper than the top of the bulb, so about that deep. And I put em' in groups of three in a triangle about six inches apart, and I found that works the best. And when people tell me that their tulips don't come back from year to year I always ask em' a couple questions and this is what I have found. They don't come back when you put em' in a bed that's out in the middle of nowhere on your property, and you never water it all summer long, because they just cook; at least in Portland they do. And you never put em' in too much shade. They need some sun. And if you don't put em' in raised beds, or in some place where they're going to get good drainage and they're just sittin' in muck all winter long then sometimes they rot out. But I've put em' in raised beds with all my other plants, and they do so incredibly well, and they come back from year to year to year, and I never lose em'. So that's the key. You mix em' with other bulbs, and that way they have friends, and just together they seem to do much better.
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