Well Buckster, I am NOT ordering from Van Engelen after the trouble we had with our tulips this year and the brusk response I got from their horticulturist. I have heard only good things abotu Colorblends and their prices are the best I am finding htis year. NOtice that they have a seperate Daffodil Market section with more fancy daffs including a lot of the ones bred by the American (I think his name was SOmething like Grant Mitsch)that are now becoming more competitive in price. I have also bought from Flowerbulb.net with mixed results.

Hey thanks a ton LizaLily.

How are things going with u. I'm doing much better this year. I was selling well but had a bad day today.

Thanks a ton, Tim

Hey Tim!!!!

I don't have any advice on those flowers, just wanted to say Hi. Hope the fire season is slow and the knee is doing fine.

Take care,

Steve

Hi Tim,

I bought tulip bulbs from Colorblends last year and loved them. Great quality Single Lates, and the mixed pinks sold well at our new farmers market.

Having said that, I'm on the hunt for cheaper bulbs. So far, the best prices I've found are from BulbMart, a North Carolina company that doesn't advertise heavily on the Web, but will send you a catalogue upon phone request. BulbMart's Mentons are about 15 cents per tulip, purchased in 100 bulb lots. Other tulip prices range up to 29 cents, averaging about 20. They also sell alliums--that will be new for me next year.

Good luck! Tulips are WONDERFUL!

Valerie

After this years experience I would chose a company known for good bulbs before I would go for the cheapest prices. OR try several sources and plant them in differnt areas to explore the options. INtersting article on Colorblends web site about why they will only send bulbs during certain dates...I found it very enlightening! The title of the article is a word or phrase in Dutch.

Hey U guys,

Thanks a ton. I'm new to the whole flower thing. Being a cherry guy first.

Steve,

Good to hear from ya. Ya the knee is doing better. Been getting fires everyday. It's suppose to be 100 till next mon.!!!!

Take care,
Tim

I certainly see your point, Liza. Bulbmart's tulip bulbs are imported from Holland, just as Colorblends and Van Engelens. From now on, no matter what source, I'll be drenching ALL tulip bulbs in an antifungal before planting (these bulbs aren't organic, and receive all sorts of systemic treatments in the field in Holland). Furthermore, I'm going to plant them in VERY, VERY well-drained beds, 6 inches apart. I'm also going to pre-treat these beds with Trichoderma, an organically approved fungus developed by Cornell, which supposedly clings to the roots of bulbs and out-competes Botrytis. Used more commonly in rosebeds, I think.

My issue re pricing is this: I can't sell French Lates for more than $1 here, either at the farmers market or to florists. If I pay $.30 per bulb, I really don't think I'm in the black. By buying at $.15-.20, I can buy more, of course, and the cost:sale goes from roughly 1:3.3 to 1:5. I think that's more in line with my costs of production.

I guess I'm banking on the pre-treatment insuring my lovely tulips--we'll see!

Valerie

I think there is more to just importing them then the fact that they came from the same place. How careful are they to remove diseased bulbs from the field. How do they dry the bulbs? HOw long are they in transit? HOw are they shipped and treated in transit? When can I get them? Will it fit my schedule or theirs? I want to start planting in early October. OFten I do not get my Van Engelens until nearly November. NOvember can be cld and wet. OCtober is glorious and a great time to be out digging and planting.

WHere can we find the approved fungicide?

And French TUlips were leaping out of the grocery store here at $1.50 a stem...I can do that! IN fact, I am buying 500 of the French tulip mixtures this fall. THey will go in another new bed but one that has been in cultivation for about 3 years. They should mostly have bloomed by the time the big leaf maples that shade the end of the bed leaf out. I ALso plan on more of the viridifloras because they seemed to resist the blight better, and more of the lily flowered ones, especially ALaddin which people seemed to really like last year before it got sick.

When does one apply the fungicide to the bulbs? When you first get them from your supplier, or after they've been refrigerated for 6-10 weeks & just before you plant, or ????

How, if at all, except for regional naming habits and a presumption that "French" tulips are better than "plain ol Single Late's" , do "French" tulips ACTUALLY differ from "Single Late" tulips? It's my understanding that they're the same. The ones that get 25-36 inches tall, that bloom late, that have that classic "egg" shaped bloom, ALL seem to be the "same". I know White Flower Farm and other pricey places have a separate listing of "French Tulips", but the names are often the same as the Single Lates from someone else's catalog. Even if they "introduce" a "new" variety, its height & bloom shape are the same as other Single Lates.

To complicate the "name-game" even further, I'm SURE I've seen certain Darwin Hybrids listed as "French" tulips. The Darwins often have the same height & bloom shape as the French/Single Late's.

Anyone have a clue about the name/botanical differences?

Alas, I'm pushing it to have ANY Single Lates/French. I bump my head against the wall of too much heat too early (March) every year, and am lucky to have ANY kind of tulip still useable in/by early-mid/April. Still, when the catalogs come in (have been here a while), I always get lured in--again. Maybe I'll focus more money this year on lilies or dahlias or daffs or alliums. I sold VERY few tulips this spring.

So far, I don't think I've had a problem w/ Van E, just w/ my late late late planting habits!

Liza, do you not have to pre-chill your tulips? Or do you do that in Aug-Sept.? If you DO pre-chill your tulips, and then plant in Oct., when do you start seeing blooms? Do you have enough natural cold to convince the tulips that they're really in Holland? LOL! Temps wise, you & I are in similar zones. I keep worrying that if I actually planted (prechilled or not) in October I'd have tulips blooming in January!

Susi.

I don't have to prechill mine, Susi. We always get some freezes and enough cold weather for them. I think we are about on the edge of that zone but I don't know anywhere in Western Washington where we can't grow tulips without pre-chilling them. We are about 80 miles south and in line with one of the major tulip growing regions, the Skagit Valley. However, they grow on alluvial soil in a valley and we grow on hard clay on top of an island...WE are less then a mile from PUget sound and about 400 feet above it. I also don't have too much trouble with the heat ruining them. Sometimes it brings them on early but that is all. I thought I had it licked by planting in cool shadows but now I find out I just rotted the bulbs doing that!

TOO BAD WE CAN'T just BUY THE BULBS FROM THE Skagit Valley but they cost 3 times as much as bulbs from Holland. THe funny part of it is that they ship their bulbs to HOlland and then they are often shipped back here as "Holland bulbs". Stupid!