Tulips are the perfect decoration for any flower bed or lawn. With proper care, these flowers will delight you year after year. There are different ways to propagate tulips.
There are many types of these flowers, each of them is beautiful in its own way. If once in the gardens mostly red tulips grew, now you can find flowers of various shades. The most famous varieties are Fringed, Terry early, Simple early, Triumph, Simple late, Rembrandt, Terry late, Foster and others.
Tulips bloom with the advent of spring. After the snow melts, the leaves grow, after 25-30 days flowering begins, which lasts about 14 days. These flowers are quite unpretentious, any soil and location can suit them, but how effective flowering will be will depend on the correct choice. Therefore, for a good result, you need to take care of choosing a place and preparing the soil, top dressing, proper and timely planting, care, digging and storing the bulbs before planting.
The most commonly used propagation of tulip bulbs. Seed propagation is used to breed new varieties, while flowering beginsafter 7-8 years. And the result is not always as expected. Such reproduction of a tulip is suitable for wild-growing species that do not form daughter bulbs.
Fit features
Tulip is a perennial plant. Planting is carried out in autumn. It is important to choose the optimal planting dates, which are determined by soil temperature. The best time is mid-September. Planting flowers too late can result in stunted growth in the spring. Tulips planted too early can bloom in the fall, and die with the advent of frost. According to experienced gardeners, you can plant tulips in the spring, but their flowering will not be lush.
Flowers need a well-lit, well-drained and sheltered site from strong winds in neutral to slightly alkaline, humus-rich soil. Tulips can be preceded by any vegetables or flowers, except for bulbous and nightshade crops. It is recommended to plant flowers in the same place no earlier than after five years.
Care
As soon as the first sprouts appear, you need to carefully examine them so as not to miss signs of disease. Damaged plants are dug up and destroyed so that he althy tulips do not become infected. To satisfy the need of plants for oxygen, it is necessary to carefully loosen the earth. This should be done regularly, especially after watering or rain.
Water and fertilize
Until flowering begins, tulips need moderate watering. It is important not to allow the soil to dry out. Atthe appearance of the first shoots, fertilizing is carried out using nitroammophos or crystallin with the addition of trace elements in the form of tablets.
During the period when buds begin to be tied, plants need potassium and phosphorus. When the buds open, they are fed again with a full mineral fertilizer.
Reproduction
Gardeners most often use the propagation of tulips by children and daughter bulbs. Propagation by seeds is commonly used by breeders.
Tulip vegetative propagation
With this method, weather conditions, insect activity are not very important, rather than with seed propagation. Tulip vegetative propagation is the traditional and most reliable method.
The growing season of tulips is small. When flowering ends, the leaves of the plant dry. A daughter bulb is formed in the mother bulb, a new flower is formed.
Preparing bulbs
Reproduction of tulips with bulbs will be successful if they are properly prepared and stored. Around July, it is necessary to separate the daughter onion from the mother. After that, it must be cleaned and dried in the fresh air. Then the bulb is sent to storage. At a temperature of about 20 degrees, it should be stored for about a month, after which you need to transfer it to a place where the temperature is lower (about 12 degrees).
Planting a bulb
In autumn, the bulbs are planted in the ground to a depth of 10-15 cm, they quickly take root. First you need to inspect them, they must be clean and solid. If spots are visible on them, such bulbs are thrown away. Tulips are planted in a row, with a distance between plants of 10-15 cm, between rows - 40 cm. The rudiments of leaves, a flower and a flowering shoot begin to grow. With the advent of the first frost, the bed is covered with a layer of straw, leaves or humus. By the onset of winter, the sprouts reach almost the surface of the soil.
In the spring, when the soil begins to thaw, the sprout comes to the surface, the development of leaves begins. Nutrients are intensively consumed in the bulb. There is noticeable growth of the replacement bulb.
During the formation of the bud, the daughter bulbs grow rapidly, the first lateral (granddaughter) bulb is laid. When flowering begins, the plant becomes twice as tall, there is an intensive growth of leaves, a powerful development of the root system. In the daughter bulbs, the formation of the rudiment of the first leaf and grandchild bulbs takes place. This period is the most important in the development and growth of the plant.
The end of the vegetative period of a plant occurs when its aerial part dries up and the roots die off. One mother bulb is replaced by a nest of children, which differ in size.
The bulb lives for about two and a half years, it develops from the bud to the replacement bulb for a year and a half, within one year it is an independent mother.
With fertilization and the formation of the ovary, the vegetative period lasts longer. For thatin order for the seeds to ripen, it is necessary to spend nutrients, so the size of the daughter bulbs is smaller. In the summer, the process of organ formation continues in them.
If vegetative propagation of a tulip occurs using only a replacement bulb, then after four to five years an adult plant begins to bloom. The size of the replacement bulb becomes maximum and remains so for two to three years. After that, it becomes smaller, the quantity and quality of daughter bulbs decreases. Over time, aging and death of the replaced bulb occurs.
Seed propagation
Propagation of tulips by seeds requires a lot of patience from the gardener, as the flowering of some plants can only be seen in the seventh, and sometimes even in the twelfth year after planting. And the result may not always please.
During seed ripening, the plant is very sensitive to moisture, it is often affected by gray rot. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully examine the plants: if dead ends of the leaves are noticeable in tulips or signs of disease are found, the fruits must be destroyed immediately.
Only the strongest plants should be selected for seed propagation. Those who are stunted and also those stricken with disease are destroyed.
In the event that the epidemic situation is threatening for the testes that have not reached their maximum size, they must be cut off, leaving the stem and one leaf. The plant is placed in clean water with a solution of boric acid (three teaspoons per ten liters of water). Plant boxes should not be in contact, but it is best to place them in different containers. There should not be more than five plants in one vessel.
Collection and storage of seeds
When the pods turn yellow, you can carefully select the seeds by removing the husk. He althy seeds have transparent walls and the embryo is clearly visible. Seeds that look dull or have gray rot should not be used.
In order for seeds to germinate, they need rest. They are kept at a temperature of about 25 ° C, with the advent of autumn, planted in pots or special boxes filled with light soil sprinkled with sand to a depth of about three centimeters.
When the plants sprout, it is important not to let them dry out, lack of moisture can lead to the death of the seedlings.
Before planting the seeds, they can be germinated in the refrigerator. To do this, the seeds are placed on moistened filter paper on a plate. Seedlings can be expected in three months. The sprouts should be carefully transferred to the sand, which is poured on light soil (one centimeter layer) and covered with the same layer of sand on top. Thanks to this method, the maximum number of plants is obtained. If the seeds are sown directly into the ground in autumn, the plant will be larger and more stable.
In the first year, the seedlings form one bulb, one root and one cotyledon leaf, round in cross section. The following year, the leaf is already flat and narrow, every year itthe surface is getting bigger. Bulbs increase in weight, in the second or third year, vegetative propagation of a tulip is already possible.
In the first year, the bulbs should be dug up when half of them have dried leaves, dried and stored at a temperature of 23-25 °C. During planting in the fall, the bulbs must be watered for better rooting, the soil is mulched. With the advent of spring, when leaves appear, regular watering of seedlings is needed until the leaves begin to die off.
Planting bulbs from a container in open ground is carried out in the second or third year. After that, they need to be dug up every year and transplanted deeper and deeper each time. Flowering can be expected in the fourth - sixth year, sometimes you have to wait fifteen years.
Propagation of tulips by seeds is a rather laborious method. It is usually used to breed new varieties.
These delightful flowers come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Pink, lilac, yellow, red tulips decorate the garden from the moment the snow melts until the arrival of summer, evoking spring warmth.
