Tulip Tips
Maintaining healthy bulbs and picking the right varieties for your climate will allow the bulbs to overwinter in the garden bed, encourage new flowers for the next year, and they will reduce the need to dig them up on a yearly basis.
A healthy tulip bulb starts with how you plant it...
Tulips prefer a sandy soil with lots of organic matter
Put bulb fertilizer in the bottom of the hole
Plant the bulb with the pointed side up
Plant the bulb to the depth of 3x the height of the bulb
To prevent the bulb from sitting in water, push bulb down into the hole and twist
Cover with soil and water thoroughly
After the tulip blooms...
Apply fertilizer for spring bulbs when new growth begins (this will replenish the nutrients back into the soil).
Cut the foliage off the plant about six weeks after it blooms. The longer the foliage remains green, the more nutrients the bulbs will collect to improve future blooming.
Before trimming the foliage or digging up tulip bulbs, wear gloves and use clean and sterilized tools to prevent the spread of plant diseases and pests.