It totally made my day when my daughter came over to visit and said as she came in the door, “Mom, the house looks like Easter!” That is literally the feeling that I want people to have when they see the blooming tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils in the front yard. The blossoming and greening up of the world in spring is incredibly beautiful. With everything going on, I wanted to share a little bit of that joy with anyone passing by the house.

To grow the pink tulips in containers, I planted 18 Double Late Angelique tulips with 3 Pink Pearl Hyacinths in each of my nursery pots using the method described in my earlier blog post about Daffodils. That may seem like a lot of bulbs for a 9 inch nursery pot, and it is, but I learned from volunteering at my local botanical garden that more is better for a spectacular show. The double blooming pink tulips are stunning with a peony-like look to them, and even better, they have a sweet smell. Even the dog stops to take a sniff on his way in and out of the house.

The Pink Pearl hyacinths shown in the photo above were actually re-grown from bulbs that I used in my containers last year. Below is a picture of some Blue Collection hyacinths that I have been re-using since the fall of 2019. I re-grew them in a planter again this year for the third year in a row, and I have noticed that they do look considerably smaller this year. If the bulbs look healthy enough when I harvest them, I plan on trying for a fourth year just to see how that goes.

So far, I’ve had success growing both Angelique and Mystic van Eijk (a Darwin Hybrid type) tulips using my container method. Last year, I didn’t have much luck with a late blooming variety of tulip called Night Club. I only had a couple of sickly-looking blooms. An article about forcing tulips on the Iowa State University Extension website says that “the best tulip types for forcing include the Triumph, Single Early, Double Early, and Darwin Hybrids.” So, for your best chance of success, I would recommend picking tulips from those types. No lie, last year was disappointing, but on that note, I’ll leave you with a picture of the Mystic van Eijk tulips from the first year that I tried container grown bulbs. After I harvested them, my Mom planted them in her yard. They looked beautiful last year, and Mom let me know that they were coming back this year until the deer nipped that in the bud, literally. Gardening, like life, has its wins and losses. Enjoy your wins. I’ll be pulling for you.

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