Tulips: Plant This Fall for a Glorious Spring Display

Few flowers are as inseparably associated with spring as the Tulip. Elegant, colorful, and astonishingly varied, Tulips can transform the garden from the first cool days of spring into a succession of brilliant flowers.

Our fall collection of Tulip bulbs has arrived at GoGardenNow, offering a wonderful range of colors, forms, heights, and flowering times for next spring's garden.

Far More Than the Classic Tulip

The familiar cup-shaped Tulip is only the beginning.

Tulips may be tall and stately or short and charming. Flowers can be simple and graceful, richly doubled, lily-shaped, fringed, ruffled, or dramatically marked with contrasting colors. The palette is extraordinary—pure white and soft cream, yellow and orange, delicate pink and rose, scarlet and burgundy, purple and nearly black, along with striped, feathered, and multicolored varieties.

By choosing varieties with different bloom times, gardeners can extend the Tulip season rather than enjoying one brief burst of color.

Plant Tulips in Generous Groups

Tulips make their greatest impression when planted with some abundance. A single flower is lovely; twenty or thirty rising together can become a garden event.

Plant them in groups through beds and borders, line a garden walk with them, combine complementary colors, or mingle Tulips with Daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs. They are also splendid in containers and make excellent cut flowers for bringing the spring garden indoors.

Autumn Is Tulip-Planting Season

Tulip bulbs are traditionally planted in fall after the soil has cooled but before it freezes. Choose a sunny location with well-drained soil and plant the bulbs at the appropriate depth for the variety.

Gardeners in warmer climates should remember that many Tulips require a substantial period of winter chilling. Where winters do not provide enough cold naturally, bulbs may need to be properly pre-chilled before planting.

Then comes the pleasant part: waiting.

Through winter, the bulbs remain hidden beneath the soil. As the days lengthen and the earth begins to warm, their leaves emerge—and soon the spring garden is filled with color.

Plant Spring Now

Tulips remind us of one of gardening's oldest lessons: some pleasures must be prepared for months before they arrive.

The work is done in autumn. The reward comes with spring.

Explore our fall collection of Tulip bulbs at GoGardenNow and plant now for a glorious display next spring.