Why winter tulips?
So many reasons. My personal favorite is that fresh flowers are NEEDED starting in February. In the small town I live in folks call February “deep winter”. It is about the time they try to take vacations, start dreaming of summer, and really need color in their life. The local grocery store flowers look so sad in February after the big flush of Valentine’s Day roses.
I NEEDED color in my life and so did my neighbors. Maybe we were not the only ones…
The next reason is tulips season is so fast if tulips are in the ground and bloom in spring. I know this because I plant tulips in the ground and love when they explode into bloom in late spring. I walk the tulip garden when the snow starts to melt just waiting…. and then they are here! I run around picking them all in a mad frenzy and then they are gone…..
When I learned there was a way to force tulips to grow during the winter I signed up immediately. It was through a course for commercial flower growers called The Tulip Workshop that I learned about growing winter tulips hydroponically! Learning how to do what is called succession planting I could have tulips blooming December - May. Yes please!
I though, I can’t be the only person who wants stunning tulips, so I created a Winter Tulip Subscription that goes Valentine’s Day - Memorial Day with delivery every two weeks. Shipped subscriptions sold out for 2025 but Cravings in Chester had my tulips Valentine’s Day weekend (TH-Sun, 8am-2pm). I also started a Lake Almanor Tulip club were locals could sign up for 4 weeks of 12 tulips and pick them up at Wild Things Floral and Gift. I am SO excited for tulips this winter.
Tulips: the first (real) year
I grew about 100 tulips in 2021-22 and at the time thought that was a lot to plant. When I decided to really grow tulips I ordered 3000 tulips and was so excited! But then things did not work out the way I thought they would…..
Tulips 2022-23 was a total Hail-Mary for Cold Creek Flowers. Snow started early and the ground was freezing. I was planting while it was snowing and just hoping things would grow. A major house renovation had us without water for the winter and when a very late spring came I still did not have a way to water plants. I was shoveling snow on to the tulips to water them. Finally the ground thawed enough to put in a new main water line and I got a hose that worked. The tulips were coming up and I just hoped. Everyday going out and walking the rows to see if something would bloom….
I could not believe how BEAUTIFUL the tulips were in late spring 2023. They finally started to bloom just after Mother’s Day and soon my neighbors were literally stopping in the street to look at them. One neighbor called it “Little Holland” which made me laugh because we were so not little Holland, but in our tiny mountain neighborhood we were a stunning surprise. A local florist starting buying tulips and neighbors would show up to buy bunches. After a winter with over 23 feet of snow, spring really sprung with these tulips.
It was this first year growing tulips in bulk that I decided. The mountains are beautiful and unpredictable for flower growing. I would grow two things that wanted to grow here. Tulips and Peonies. They would bloom after other growers, but they would be healthy and happy. The plants and I would work in harmony with the seasons and snow and when the plants were ready, they would bloom. And I would be ready to share them.