Tulips Are Blooming – Indoors

  • Post published:02/26/2013
  • Post comments:5 Comments
Tulips at Smith College

Yesterday I drove into the valley to see tulips, and many other  bulbs and flowers, blooming at the Mt. Holyoke College Talcott Greenhouse and the Smith College Lyman Plant House. Both institutions are preparing for their annual Spring Bulb shows which require attentive and scientific handling of the potted plants, cool and then slowly warming so that they are at the perfect moment for spring-hungry flower lovers to visit them when the shows open on Saturday, March 2.  Both shows run for two weeks and the greenhouses are open from 10 am to 4 pm.

When I visited yesterday both greenhouses were in the process of being set up. Potted plants have been living in the working sections while they are not blooming, and are just now being arranged in a beautifully designed array. Tulips are always an important part of the display and it is easy to understand. Tulips are so tall and stately and come in so many glowing colors. I love seeing tulips in the greenhouse because rodents inevitably eat them when I plant them in the garden. I love tulips, but I grow daffodils in my own garden. And some of the little bulbs like grape hyacinths.

My tulips

Don’t laugh! I don’t know why my forced tulips are so short. Maybe I should just be glad that mice didn’t eat them before the bulbs even had a chance to sprout.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Jeane

    Your tulips look like roses. So pretty. I like them, even if they’re short. How long does it take to get blooms out of forced tulips?

  2. Those tulips unopened exude so much potential, especially in contrast to the winter shot.

  3. I’ve had my share of short tulips too – in the garden, no less. I heard that if they don’t get a sufficient period of cold, they will be short. Do you think that might be what happened with yours? I know it happens to me if I don’t chill my bulbs in North Carolina.

  4. Pat

    Jeane – I potted up those tulips around the beginning of November.
    Colleen – The tulips are even prettier than the snow today.
    Sarah – Lack of cold might be the answer. It gets into the 30’s in my Great Room but happily, for most other purposes, it doesn’t go below 32.

  5. Sharon Himsl

    No problem, short or tall. Tulips are a sign of spring. LOVELY. I may try this next year 🙂

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