How Long to Grow a Tulip?

The Facts

• Tulips start as large, onion-shaped bulbs that, planted in the fall, send up large, colorful blooms on tall stalks rising from sword-shaped, thick leaves in the spring. They come in many colors and a variety of flower types. Harbingers of the new growing season, they look wonderful. However, blooms last only about two weeks, leaving empty stems and drooping leaves. Most bloom each year from the same bulb. Some others don't, which means yearly bulb planting.

Options

• Most tulips grow for six to eight weeks, with blooms lasting about two weeks. When the petals drop and leaves begin slouching and turning yellow, make a choice. If a new fall planting is scheduled, cut them down or dig them up and clear out the garden for something else. Otherwise, remove spent flowers and allow foliage to die naturally, since it will keep feeding the bulb. Cultivate the plant for the next season's growth.

Considerations

• Yearly bulb planting can be labor-intensive, as well as expensive. But it can also be a "rite" of fall, and provide gardeners the opportunity of trying new varieties, with new spring expectations. And yearly planting removes the need to keep watch over wilting plants. Longer-lived bulbs, such as the Darwin variety, which stay in the ground, are developed to re-flower and even spread each year.

Solution

• Determine whether to plant yearly or cultivate bulbs already in the ground. Time-wise and energy-wise, the needs may be about the same. The answer to how long to grow a tulip ultimately depends on the gardener's interest, physical abilities, available tools and other considerations, along with the time and effort that's free for plant cultivation or yearly replanting. Plus, there's always the factor that most affects decisions like this: the budget. Replanting spends. Cultivating saves.