Last year, I wrote a blog post about Tulips Season 2024, but I thought I would write something this year that’s a little more encompassing. Our 3 main crops for spring are tulips, anemones, and ranunculus. Let’s start with tulips.
Tulips
First, let me start by saying that in order to grow tulips in the south with longer stems, they need to be pre-chilled down to 9*C which is something we allow our bulb supplier to do for us. We planted in raised beds around Thanksgiving this year. It was our first year planting them this way and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to planting them in ground. Because we pull our tulips out of the ground with the bulb on, raised beds made that process so much easier.
A few varieties bloomed successfully for us, but others would throw a bud and gray off. There are a few things we look for such as tulip fire, but this was a little bit different. After talking with a few other people, it looks as though we experienced bud blast. It wasn’t something that I was familiar with, but it can be the result of a few different factors. One of those being that it may not have received the necessary chill time from the supplier, but the other possibility being major temperature swings from cold to warm. Tulips do need the cold, but a jump in temperature as they’re getting ready to flower can be detrimental. When I looked back, we had huge temperature dips in both January and February followed by warmups. Both being things that are totally beyond our control. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get as many tulips as I would have liked this year, but there’s always next year.
An example of bud blast in tulips.
Anemones
Anemones. When they bloomed, they were beautiful. Anemones are also planted in November and always start flowering on short stems. While we tried to pick as many as possible this year, rabbits seemed to find them first and would often eat the bud right away. Amazingly enough, anemones that we have left in the ground and overwintered in a different spot were untouched and were beautiful. It was a lesson for us that maybe they would fare better in a different location.
Ranunculus
It was the year for Ranunculus. We planted more than we ever have before and they bloomed beautifully. There is one variety we will likely cull from what we grow due to the way it flowered. Others were stunning. I’ve heard farming compared to gambling. Sometimes the odds are just in your favor. Growing ranunculus in the south can be testy. One warmup too soon can equal a shutdown of your plants. We were able to get a few great harvests from each variety and the plant still looks healthy. Our temperatures are mild for the next week or so meaning there could be the possibility of another succession of flowers. I am happy either way.
For me, this is a great way to revisit each season and ask myself what went well, what went wrong, and what I will do differently. Raised beds work well for tulips, anemones will be moved and soil amended, and we plan on sharing ranunculus corms in our October pre-order based on interest of others to grow their own. There is always something that I will do differently based on prior experience and I think it’s important to be honest about our experiences in flower farming. Let me know if this is helpful to you or if you have any questions.