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How to Grow Tulips: Planting, Care, and Tips for Vibrant Spring Blooms

multicolored tulips in a garden. red, pink, yellow, and orange
Botanical Name
Tulipa spp.
Grown as
Perennial
USDA Zones
3a
3b
4a
4b
5a
5b
6a
6b
7a
7b
Toxicity
Toxic
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Partial Sun
Water Needs
Moderate
Height
Under 1 foot
Spread
Under 1 foot
Soil pH
Acidic
Neutral
Bloom Time
Spring
Flower Color
Green
Multicolor
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Yellow
Special Features
Container-Friendly
Cut Flower
Resilience
Cold Hardy
Plant Type
Bulbs
Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Long live the tulip! These beautiful jewels brighten our days in spring. We truly look forward to seeing those blue-green leaves start to emerge as Earth awakens from its winter sleep! 

Here are our tips on how to grow and care for tulips in your garden.

Tulips typically begin emerging from the ground in late winter or early spring. If unseasonably mild weather causes premature growth in winter, the danger is not as great as it may seem. Tulips (and daffodils, too) are quite cold-tolerant. If freezing winter temperatures return, it may delay growth, however. Snow is actually helpful in this case, as it can insulate the foliage from extreme cold. 

Plant in the Fall for Spring Blooms!

Tulip bulbs are planted in the autumn, 6 to 8 weeks before the ground freezes. You can have tulips blooming from early to late spring by planting varieties with different bloom times. Some types are suitable for forcing into bloom indoors, and most are excellent for use as cut flowers, too.

Tulip flowers are usually cup-shaped with three petals and three sepals. Every setting has a tulip, from small “species” tulips in naturalized woodland areas to larger tulips that fit formal garden plantings from beds to borders. The upright flowers may be single or double and vary in shape from simple cups, bowls, and goblets to more complex forms. Heights range from 6 inches to 2 feet. One tulip grows on each stem, with two to six broad leaves per plant.

Are Tulips Annual or Perennial Bulbs?

Although tulips are technically perennial, many centuries of hybridizing have resulted in weakening the bulb’s ability to return year after year. Therefore, many gardeners treat them as annuals, planting new bulbs every autumn. The North American climate and soil can’t replicate the ancient Anatolian and southern Russian conditions of their birth. Gardeners in the western mountainous regions of the U.S. come closest to this climate and may have more success perennializing their tulips.

Planting

Where to Plant Tulips

Tulips prefer full sun or afternoon sun. In Zones 7 and 8, choose a shady site or one with morning sun only, as tulips don’t like a lot of heat.

The soil must be well-draining, neutral to slightly acidic, fertile, and dry or sandy. All tulips dislike areas with excessive moisture. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost.

Shelter tall varieties from strong winds.

When to Plant Tulips

Plant tulip bulbs in fall, once the soil has cooled but before the ground freezes. Give them time to develop roots before winter. Your first fall frost is not the planting deadline—you can still plant afterward if the ground remains workable.

Timing depends on where you garden:

  • Cold-winter regions: Plant during fall as soils cool. October is ideal in Iowa, for example; tulips can still be planted later if the ground hasn’t frozen.
  • Mild-winter regions: Planting may extend into late fall or early winter. Local recommendations vary: Georgia Extension gives October through late December for spring-flowering bulbs, while LSU recommends late December or early January for pre-chilled tulips in its Louisiana guidance.<p>

Where winters don’t provide enough cold, tulip bulbs may need pre-chilling to bloom. Buy pre-chilled bulbs or follow your supplier’s refrigeration instructions for your varieties and climate. Recommended chilling periods vary, so no single refrigerator schedule suits every gardener. Keep bulbs away from ripening fruit, and plant promptly after chilling.

For more on choosing and planting spring-flowering bulbs, see our fall bulb planting guide.

Buying bulbs early gives you the best selection, but you don’t need to plant them in warm soil immediately. Until planting time, store them in a cool, dry place. If you’re running late, plant while the ground is still workable rather than saving the bulbs until spring.

Missed fall planting? See our advice on planting tulip bulbs in winter.

How to Plant Tulips

  1. Check the planting depth. Plant larger garden tulips 6 to 8 inches deep, measured from the bulb’s base to the soil surface. Smaller species tulips generally need a depth of 3 to 5 inches. Follow the instructions for your bulbs.
  2. Adjust for your soil. In heavy clay, you can plant bulbs 1 to 2 inches shallower than the usual recommended depth. Good drainage is still essential; shallower planting won’t solve a waterlogged bed. Avoid adding small amounts of sand to clay soil to improve drainage.
  3. Space the bulbs. Allow 4 to 6 inches between larger tulips and about 3 to 4 inches between smaller types. Plant in groups for a generous splash of spring color.
  4. Set each bulb pointed end up. Backfill with soil and water thoroughly to settle the soil around the bulbs and encourage root growth. Avoid leaving the soil soggy.

Yellow tulips in a tulip garden

Growing

  • Water when needed. If fall weather is dry, water as needed until the ground freezes. During spring growth and flowering, check the soil and water when it becomes dry. Rain may provide enough moisture, but an occasional shower isn’t always enough.
  • Avoid soggy soil. Tulips need good drainage throughout the year. Once the foliage dies back and the bulbs become dormant, avoid keeping the bed wet with frequent summer irrigation.
  • Fertilize only as needed. Bulbs contain the stored energy for their first spring’s flowers. If you grow tulips for just one season, fertilizer generally isn’t necessary. For established plantings, use soil-test recommendations to guide feeding and follow the fertilizer label. 
  • Remove faded flowers, but leave the leaves. If you want tulips to return next year, snip off spent blooms before they form seeds. Let the foliage turn yellow and die back naturally before removing it—those green leaves help the bulb store energy for next spring’s flowers.  

Field of red-pink tulips

Harvesting

Cut tulips just before the buds fully open. Leave some of the foliage behind to build up energy in the bulb for the next year’s growth. Recut the stems at an angle before placing them in a vase. Tulips continue to grow after being cut and are phototropic, reaching toward the light. Rotate the vase daily to keep stems upright. 

Change the water daily, and tulips will last about 7 days in a vase. To get a long vase life of at least a week, cut stems diagonally and wrap the upper two-thirds of the stems (with flowers) in a newspaper funnel. Stand in cool water up to the funnel for 1 to 2 hours, recut stems, and set in fresh water.

Pests and Problems

Protecting Tulips From Animals 

Squirrels and chipmunks may dig up newly planted bulbs, while voles and mice may eat them underground. Moles can disturb plantings through their tunneling, but they do not eat tulip bulbs. 

  • To discourage digging, cover the planting area with chicken wire or hardware cloth. Where underground bulb-eating animals are a problem, buried hardware-cloth cages can help protect the bulbs.

Pests

Other Problems

Types

Tulip flowers may be single, double, ruffled, fringed, or lily-shaped, depending on the variety.

  • ‘Cracker’: purple, pink, and lilac petals; midseason bloomer
  • ‘Ile de France’: red blooms on stems to 20 inches tall; midseason bloomer
  • ‘Marilyn’: large, ruffled, candy cane-colored flower; late-season bloomer
  • ‘Spring Green’: creamy-white petals feathered with green; late-season bloomer
  • ‘Renown’: hot pink, egg-shaped flower; late-season bloomer 

Wild, or “species,” tulips are small in size, ranging in height from 3 to 8 inches. They are tougher than hybrids. Rock and herb gardens are ideal places to plant them. They look stunning when planted in large groupings. 

  • For early to midspring bloom time: Tulipa bakeri, T. batalinii, T. humilis, T. kaufmanniana, T. turkestanica
  • For later blooming time: T. linifolia, T. neustreuvae, T. sprengeri, T. vvedenskyi
  • For multicolor varieties: T. biflora, T. greigii ‘Quebec’, T. praestans ‘Fusilier’ and ‘Unicum’, T. tarda, T. turkestanica
  • For a container: T. kaufmanniana ‘Goudstuk’
  • For (mottled) foliage: T. greigii (mottled or striped), T. fosteriana ‘Juan’, T. kaufmanniana ‘Heart’s Delight’
  • For fragrance: T. aucheriana, T. biflora, T. saxatilis, T. sylvestris, T. turkestanica
  • For warmer regions: Lady tulip (T. clusiana), Candia tulip (T. saxatilis), and Florentine tulip (T. sylvestris) overwinter in the South or mild-winter areas of the West (Zones 8 to 10) without the need of a chilling period

There are so many beautiful varieties of tulips. Explore catalogs and experiment in your garden!

Wit and Wisdom

  • Tulips, and the word for them, come from the Far East: Tulip comes from the Turkish word tülbent, meaning turban, and can be further traced back to the Persian word dulband, meaning round.
  • Did you know: If you dig up a tulip bulb in late summer, it’s probably not the same bulb you planted last fall—it’s her daughter. Even while the tulip is blossoming, the bulb is dividing for the next generation.
  • In 17th-century Holland, the new tulip was such the rage and fashion that a handful of bulbs was worth about $44,000.
  • Red tulips symbolize a declaration of love. Explore more flower meanings here.

Bulbs

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening, so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Kat</span> Fri, 05/13/2016 - 17:52
Hi, I purchased my tulip bulbs a little too late and did not have a chance to plant them before the frost. I would like to plant them now but noticed that some of them are a little rotted but sprouted leaves. Can I plant the bulbs now? And can I plant the rotted ones as well? Thank you. I am a beginner from Michigan.
<span>Alan</span> Fri, 05/13/2016 - 09:02
Hi, I am not good with gardening but my wife wants my lawn looks beautiful like my neighbors' next year. When is the best time/season (summer or fall) to plant Tulip Bulbs? If I will be successful, my wife will give me an ok to buy my new Camera. That's our deal. Please help me. Thanks.
<span>Eldon Gaw</span> Sun, 05/29/2016 - 11:54
Ok so let start by me telling you I am not a gardener, but I do love tulips. (By the way, start looking for the camera of your dreams because this is a no brainer!!) Buy your tulip bulbs when the local stores start selling them for the best choice, and when they are running out of stock, for the best deals. Look on the bag and fool proof instructions are always there, in graphic form. They will tell you when to plant ( fall is always best, maybe a month or three weeks max before the snow flies... (Last Dec. found a bag of bulbs in the closet I forgot to plant, and put them in on Dec. 19... and sure enough, they had started to sprout but in they went anyway. This spring they ALL grew beautifully.) and how deep,.... anything 6 inches or below should do, and how far apart, usually about 4 to 6 inches.. pointy end up. I would advise that you dig the earth a couple of inches lower than the bulb, and fill it back in so the soil is loose and can drain well.. A few small stones in the bottom of your hole is a good little bit of insurance for good drainage. I prefer to dig a trench about 10 inches or so wide and space my bulbs in two rows one across the front and one across the back of the trench alternately (Zig Zag pattern) as that seems to work well for me, instead of individual holes, but you make your own call. I have one of those metal tulip bulb hole tools and they are really handy and fast, so if this is going to be an on-going thing, and you want to plant them individually, I would recommend the investment of a few dollars on one, or, like me, just use a shovel and dig a trench. Now as for the end result. You can buy early season, mid season and late season blooming bulbs, so look on the package for the expected date. Here in Ottawa Ontario, Canada, I have tulips blooming from as soon as the snow allows, usually early to mid march (and new snow will not hurt them, don't rush out to cover them, it's ok!) until the end of May. Usually the early ones are short, maybe 5 inches max tall and the late ones might be 15 inches tall. The mid to late bloomers are the most beautiful and colorful. And here is the clincher, they will bloom a second and third year... with no effort on your part... Those early bloomers are at least 10 years in the ground. Now for the choice of colours and display. I prefer "bunches" maybe 15 or 20, in a close knit patch, maybe 2 to three or four feet long max. then space that patch a few feet from the next patch, and dig in another 15 or 20, this time of a different colour and maybe a different breed. (the single tulips are what everyone looks for but if you buy a patch of "Doubles" they have a whole lot more petals on them and almost resemble a carnation... There are also "Parrot" ones that have very pretty ruffled edges... look at the picture and see what you want...mix and match your colour of flowers and you will be able to buy the most expensive camera your wife can afford!!! Good luck, from Ottawa, On. Canada.
<span>Sally Carrico</span> Tue, 05/10/2016 - 12:18
Thanks. This gave me just the info I wanted to transplant some of my "ancient" bulbs that have survived with neglect by tenants.
<span>Nancy</span> Tue, 05/10/2016 - 10:08
Live in Florida now. Have tulip bulbs in vase blooming now. How can I save them and hopefully get them to bloom next year. Thanks
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 05/11/2016 - 17:03

We probably would not plant these. The bulb would need a nice rest, including a chill period (think of the normal cycle: plant in fall, it enjoys a chill in winter, then begins to grow in spring. In all likelihood, there is not time in the calendar for it to go through it’s cycle. You could try…if the bulb is not all mushy from the water…but keep your expectations in check. Displays such as yours in water are usually meant for a single performance. In the fall, buy a bag of bulbs to plant and you will have a flower show in spring 2017.

 <span>Kate</span> Mon, 05/09/2016 - 17:32
Our local public garden featured spectacular massed tulip displays this spring. They now are digging up the bulbs and offering them for sale. (Growing zone 5) 1. Because the bulbs are being dug before the leaves die back, will the bulbs lack the vigor needed to bloom again? 2. Would it be best to replant the bulbs this spring, or store them until fall? If the latter, what is the best way to store them?
<span>Joanie</span> Sat, 05/07/2016 - 09:01
Hi, I was sitting on the lawn with out 11 month old grandson and showing him our bright red tulips. I touched the petal of one and thought I received a slight shock, he copied me straight away and jumped back with horror on his face. Our daughter came into the garden a few minutes later and the same thing happened to her. So it wasn't my imagination. Can anyone explain this strange occurrence?!
<span>Margie</span> Thu, 05/05/2016 - 09:12
Hi...I received tulips in a pot this spring. Can I take them out since the flowers are done and plant them now? And, I also forgot to plant tulip and crocus bulbs I bought last fall. Will they grow if I plant now and since they are dry, can I re-hydrate them somehow and be successful?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 05/05/2016 - 15:32

Hi Margie,

Yes, you can plant the potted tulips in the ground. They will not bloom again this year. Plant the tulip and croucus bulbs in the fall. They need the cold months to go dormant and then will bloom next spring.