What to Know When Planting a Tulip Garden

Planting a tulip garden can be fun but you have to know what which types of tulip bulbs will thrive when planted. Certain climate zones are better for growing tulips than others, and different types of tulips bloom during different parts of the tulip season.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has numbered all the climate zones of the United States from numbers 1 to 11.  Each of these numbers represents a certain region, and are the numbers that planters use to determine where and which tulips to plant.

Most tulips do well in USDA climate zones 3 through 7. This is within a minimum temperature range of -45 degrees to +10 degrees. Some also do well in climate zone 8 which has a minimum temperature of up to 20 degrees. These temperatures are the minimum temperature at which tulips can survive.

Another aspect of planting a tulip garden you should know about is when each flower is expected to bloom. The following is an example of tulips that bloom in early spring:

Early Spring Bloomers

·        Red Emperor:  This one is a medium-red colored tulip which grows to be up to 16 inches tall. Usually those who plant this type place 5-6 tulip bulbs per square foot in the soil.

·        Apricot Beauty Tulips: These are bright peach colored tulips and they grow to be up to 18 inches tall. Just like the Red Emperor tulip these are planted 5-6 bulbs per square foot.

·        Ice Cream Tulip: This one is so called the Ice Cream tulip because it looks like a scoop of strawberry ice cream sitting in a medium pink ice cream dish.

You can find other early spring bloomers when you search for them as well. All tulips are organized by a variety of search criteria such as height, color, type of bulb, and so forth. You can read on to see example of mid-spring bloomers. Some examples of these are listed as follows:

Mid-Spring Bloomers

·        Ivory Floradale: The flower blossoms of this type of tulip are a pure ivory color.

·        The Alpeldoorn Elite Tulip: This flower is a medium orange color.

·        Red Parade Tulip: This tulip is a rich red color.

·        Pink Impression Tulip: This one is medium pink with a satiny texture

·        Golden Parade Tulip: This spring blossom is a goldenrod/yellowish color.

All of the above types of tulips are ones that are single flower tulips. Furthermore, each one is distinguishable not only by the length that they grow to but also by each jumbo size flower blossom. These flowers grow to be about 18 inches tall. You can find other varieties of mid-spring tulips that are not shown here.

You can also find tulips that you can plant that are mid to late spring bloomers as well. These are as follows:

Mid-to Late Spring Bloomers

·        Royal Acres Tulip: These are a lovely royal purple color.

·        Peach Melba Tulip: These tulips are a yellow flower highlighted with peach tones.

·        True and Fair Tulip: This one is recognized by its bright yellow color, and double blossom flower.

·        Angelique Tulip: This one is noticed by its light pink color.

·        Greenland Tulip: This one is distinguished by the pink flower blossom accented by green flower veins.

All of the above except the Greenland Tulip are double bloom tulips, which is a tulip that has more than one pistil and stamen on each stem. The Greenland tulip is a single flower. The tulips described above are usually spacing 4-5 inches apart in a tulip garden. Most of the above grow up to 18 inches tall, and the Greenland Tulip grows to be 26 inches tall.

Most of these are planted in either clusters of approximately 5 to 11 tulips or they are planted in a square formation of one color.