Ready to start your own raised bed tulip garden? In this post, I will share my step-by-step guide to show you everything you need to know to successfully grow and harvest tulips right in your own backyard.
What Are Tulips?
Tulips are a beautiful flower grown from a bulb that can add beauty to any garden, no matter how big or small. If you’re interested in learning how to grow your own tulips, this post will provide you with all the information you need to get going. From selecting and sourcing your bulbs to planting and caring for your tulips, you’ll learn tips and tricks to help you create a stunning tulip garden in your backyard either for show or for harvest!
Before You Plant
Before you start getting your hands dirty and plant your tulip bulbs, it’s important that you choose the right location for them in order to have the most successful tulip garden. Tulips prefer a spot where they have well-drained soil and full sun. This means you will want to make sure your raised bed gets at least six hours of direct sunlight each day.
Additionally, if you haven’t yet placed your raised beds, consider the layout of your garden and choose a location that will showcase your tulips’ beauty. I have my four raised beds in an U-shaped layout in the cottage garden in front of the greenhouse where it gets at least six hours of full sun a day.
Once you have chosen the perfect location for your tulip garden, and have installed your raised beds, it’s time to prepare the soil. Start by adding nutrient rich compost to your raised beds. Then, sprinkle in amendments to the soil for additional food for the tulip bulbs. I liked using “Bulb Tone” from Espoma to sprinkle and mix into the beds. This will help to improve the health of the tulip bulbs and allow the tulip bulbs to grow and establish strong roots. If your raised beds already have soil in them, you can just top off the beds with a bit of fresh compost and mix in.
Where To Buy Tulip Bulbs?
If you’re looking to make an impact in your raised beds, you will want to purchase quite a few to plant closely together. I’ve bought a few bulbs locally from garden centers near me and even from the big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s.
However, I’ve found by buying in bulk from a wholesaler it helps to keep the costs down when planting en mass. I’ve been buying my bulbs from Colorblends for the last few years now and have had great success with them!
How To Plant A Tulip Garden In Raised Beds
Once your raised beds are prepared, it’s time to plant the tulip bulbs! The best time to plant tulips is in the fall, or roughly 6-8 weeks before your first hard frost. This will give your tulip bulbs enough time to establish their roots before the ground freezes.
To plant the bulbs in your raised beds, you’ll want to move a layer of soil off to the side as you will be planting the tulips fairly close together. Plant the bulbs roughy 2-3 inches apart and about 5-6 inches deep pointy side up. Cover them back up with soil and water them all in once you have finished planting! That’s it!
I was able to fit 250 tulip bulbs into each of my 4×4 raised beds! I could have planted even more too!
To Harvest Tulips or Not To Harvest?
After winter has passed and your bulbs start to emerge, consider if you want to harvest the flowers or leave them in your raised beds to enjoy.
I had decided early on I was going to start a cut flower stand and sell my tulips, so I would be harvesting them bulbs in all!
When you harvest tulips with the bulbs attached, it means you are getting an extra stem length for your flower arrangements!
This also means it does not give the bulbs enough of a chance to soak up nutrients to come back the following year. Because of that, I am composting each bulb from the tulips I harvest, so no waste there!
If you decide to just leave your tulips and enjoy the blooms, you can decide if you would like to have them come back again the following year. If that is the case, wait until your tulips have finished blooming, deadhead the spent flower blooms and await until their foliage has yellowed and died back. At this point you can either leave the bulbs in your raised beds for the following year, or dig them up and store them to be replanted again in the fall.
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[…] It’s the first week in May, and the cottage garden is in bloom with thousands of tulips! Almost all 2,000 of my tulips in both my raised beds and in the landscaped beds are all blooming! […]