Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Taking Care of Tulips

Taking Care of TulipsTulips, whether in the florist shops or in your garden, are a sure sign of spring and while I was buying a bunch from my favorite florist this week she let me in on a trade secret.

If you buy tulips with sagging heads and want them to stand straight in the vase, simply make a one-inch score on the stems just above where the leaves join and the flowers will soon straighten.

Don't forget to clip an inch off of the bottom of the stems once they're ready to go into fresh water. This will allow them to absorb water more easily, staying fresh longer.

Using my custom search engine I found some other posts about tulips:

Dead heading flowering bulbs: All About Bulbs
Watercolor tulips: Little Woolgatherings
Photographs of tulips: Calendula and Concrete
A review of the book Tulipmania: Heavy Petal
Travel in the land of tulips, the Netherlands: Blogpourri
Making origami tulips: Origami instructions.com
Tulip quilt patterns: Buzzville
A tulip bag: Bake Sale Designs
Planting and transplanting tulip bulbs: Garden Tips n' Ideas

And some bonuses:
A tulip cake pan: Sur La Table
A tulip paper hat: FamilyFun.com
A copper tulip rain chain: Zen gifts
A tulip bouquet cake: Kraft.com

Check in with Rocks in My Dryer every Wednesday for other good tips.

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18 comments:

Portrait of Peter said...

Many thanks for the tips - I need all the help I can get - when it comes to plants and flowers too.

Julie in Texas said...

Great idea. I love tulips but they always seemed to wilt sooner than other flowers. I will give this a try!

Joyful Days said...

I love the origami one. The cake is cute too.

M said...

great post - does this work with other flowers?

Nice example of how to use your new tool as well!

Mom2fur said...

Purple tulips are second only to red roses as my favorite flower! I love this tip and plan to give it a try. Thanks!

Jordan McCollum said...

Our tulips were all budding.... we gotdumped with 3-4" of snow last night.

So much for early spring in Utah!

Unknown said...

Thank you! I love to purchase tulips for Easter weekend but weren't able to enjoy them for very long. Terrific tip!

la bellina mammina said...

Thanks for the tip! Any tips for calla lilies?

Unknown said...

Oh I love tulips! A few years my husband gave me 100 tulip bulbs for my birthday to plant in our front garden. What a spectacular sight! Sadly, the squirrels have since ravaged them - those pesky little critter.

Can't wait to check out those sites ;-)

Anonymous said...

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. I love having fresh flowers around but I have to find a way to keep my cats from eating them! LOL!

Heffalump said...

I love tulips, and I love Origami. Thanks for the great info!

Anonymous said...

Wait! I have pictures of tulips at my blog too.

Come see. :)

I too love this tip because even in HOLLAND, the tulips can droop.

Lei said...

Ah! Thank you so much! I just suffered the loss of a bunch of tulips not 2 days ago for this very reason... :(

Alexandra said...

Okay..I need to email you about your search engine!

Nice post...I love tulips. I let mine die down, but I think this years I'll clip a few for the house.

Anonymous said...

Great tips! I also cut my tulip stems on an angle, under running water. Thanks for the link - and for making me blog of the week!

Anonymous said...

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. But there are others right up there too. Does that aspirin thing still work for flowers?
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Brookville Daily Photo

Anonymous said...

Cool tip! I will have to pass that along to my husband. He is the green thumb in the house. Everything I touch dies within a week.

Scribbit said...

I made a mistake on one of the blogs: it's Woolgathering, not "Little Woolgatherings"--a different blog altogether. So sorry.