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10 Quick Ways to Change Your Fire-less Fireplace from a Black Hole to a Worthy Focal Point
Everyone loves a fireplace aglow with a roaring fire or flickering embers. But your fireplace need not be a gaping empty hole--like a picture frame without a picture—-those times you choose not to have a fire.
As you look over these ideas,...
Concerning Mulch - PART TWO
Copyright © 2005 Tammy Clayton The use of shredded wood mulch exists for reasons unknown to many of us. It is true and a good point that the mulch does in fact control erosion in a new planting prior to the roots taking hold of the soil. The wood...
Same Day Flower Delivery
So, you’ve let your wife’s birthday slip your mind. This is an incredible feat considering she has been dropping not-so-subtle hints for the past 2 weeks. After you have smacked yourself, you begin to devise a plan. A surprise dinner at her favorite...
The Meanings Behind the Colors of Roses
Roses are a sign of love and friendship and by giving someone a rose you are telling them how truly special they are. There are a number of colors of roses available and each one represents a different meaning to the receiver. If you are looking to...
Want a Garden, But Don’t have Enough Dirt Or Space? Hydroponics Gardening Is The Answer!
Hydroponics gardening is the perfect solution for anybody who wants a garden, but does not have enough space or dirt. Hydroponics gardening is, simply put, a method of growing plants using a nutrient solution instead of dirt. With hydroponics...
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Tulip Care
The crocus, anemone, narcissus and daffodil are all welcome harbingers of spring. However, growing tulips capture the essence of spring with bright colorful blooms that renew the earth with promise of summer color. The best part of growing tulips is watching them dance in the first breaths of spring. The second best part of growing tulips is tulip care. The reason is because once established, a tulip bed needs very little care at all!
Tulips originated in Central Asia where they grew in the wild. The word tulip means turban and comes from a Turkish word, turbend. Tulips were cultivated in Turkey as early as 1,000 AD. Today tulips are frequently associated with the Netherlands. In August of 1593, Carolus Clusius received a gift of tulip bulbs from his friend, Ogier Ghiselain de Busbecq, the ambassador of Constantinople. He planted the bulbs and the spring of 1594 gave birth to the first tulips of Holland. Clusius’s planting is still considered the birth of the Netherlands flower bulb business, which continues today, over 400 years later. The colorful flowers soon became major trading commodities. Different color strains and mutations were status symbols and in such high demand in the 1600’s that tulips were often sold by estimated weight, even before they were lifted from the ground. Trading in tulip futures was
dubbed as “tulpenwindhandel” (tulip wind trade). Soon this speculative trading got out of hand and the Dutch government introduced trade restrictions to quash it.
Growing tulips is easy. Tulips are spring flowering bulbs that should be planted in late autumn. Tulip bulbs are an excellent nutrient storage system that need little care besides water. Tulips prefer a bed of sandy, slightly alkaline soil with at least four hours of sunlight per day, but not direct sun. Today there are over 100 species of growing tulips and many hundreds of hybrids, primarily due to the extensive breeding programs and tulip care that began in the late sixteenth century.
Planting tulips is as simple as growing tulips. Bulbs should be spaced depending on the effect you want to create. The only rule is that they shouldn’t be close enough to touch each other. Planting depth is also easy to calculate. As a rule of thumb, plant tulip bulbs at a depth of two to three times the height of the bulb. The most difficult part of planting tulips is remembering to put them root side down and pointed side up!
About the Author
Linda is author of the
Tulip Flower and Bulb Flowers section of Gardening-Guides.com
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