Tips for April - Conditioning Tulips

Following are tips from the Netherlands Flower Bulb

Information Centre for enjoying tulips to the fullest - and to give you an edge up for teaching friends and family how to care for their floral gifts!

 

For longest vase life, cut tulips with flower buds closed but about to open, with the colour of the flower evident.

Before arranging tulips, condition them by re-cutting the base of the stem with a clean sharp knife. Cut straight across the stem, not at a slant. This will open up the flower’s water uptake channels.

Tulips are particularly thirsty. Check water level daily. Refresh or change water every day for longest vase life.

Tulips, unlike most flowers, keep growing after being cut - sometimes up to an inch taller while in the vase. This means they have an unusually stylish characteristic treasured by professional floral designers: they "move or dance in the vase." Don’t expect them to stand stalwartly upright, they will bend and twist to their own delight.

For entering tulips in shows, condition them by wrapping individual stems in newspaper, place in vase filled with warm water and place in dark place (ie.closet) - they will be ramrod straight in a few hours!

With proper care, ulips should open and last from five to seven days. Keep away from sources of heat (including direct sunlight, radiators, lamps and television sets).

Combining tulips with daffodils or any other members of the Narcissus family is not recommended because narcissi exude a slimy substance that shortens the life span of other flowers by clogging their water uptake channels.