| Enjoy them! Tulips expect to bloom during very cool, crisp spring weather -- heat will make them open wide and then call it quits. You can sometimes fool potted tulips into holding their blooms longer, by refrigerating them overnight and keeping them as cool as possible otherwise. I suspect you are about 500-800 miles too far south to provide the right climate to make it worthwhile trying to keep the bulbs once they have finished blooming, but you might like to try (I mean, if he's real gem of a BF, he might be impressed by the effort you make). If so, be sure to use a bit of liquid plant food when you water them, diluting it to about 1/4 strength. Eventually they will finish blooming; keep on giving them dilute fertilizer and let them have plenty of sunshine until all of the leaves die back. Trim the dead leaves off, and then place the pot out of the way in a cool, shaded spot, and water about every 2 or 3 weeks, only enough to barely moisten the soil. In October, take the pot and put it into the bottom of your refrigerator (it's okay to lay on its side). About 16 weeks later, take the pot out of the frig, water, and set upright in a cool room (no sunny window). Depending on the variety, it should bloom again 4 to 8 weeks later. The blooms likely will not be quite as big as when they first came to you, but that is mostly because the bulbs were pot-bound and possibly not getting the exact nutrients they would prefer. Nevertheless, it can be quite fun to have them bloom again and again. |
