Department: Alpine
We repotted the
Tulipa collection. Tulips can't go a year without potting - they tend to rot off if not. It is also a chance to check for
Pithium and
Botrytis. Dec and Jan are when shoots start coming up, but because of the warmer winter unfortunately some has started to come up already! It is best to repot now when they haven't been watered all summer and are still dry so will have no roots. Characteristic of the bulbs are fluffy crimped hair outside and the base plate is like a platypus and the roots come out on one plane. For the ones that have rooted a lot - we tried to keep them in one clump and tried to not disturb them as much, only taking out any that had died or had rotted away - brushing in dolomitic dust if necessary. Otherwise we brushed all separate bulbs with the dust.
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| Photo 1: What the bulbs looked like before their potted and first taken out of the pot - it is not ideal that they have rooted already. |
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| Photo 2: Individual Tulipa bulbs - again not ideally rooting and shooting. |
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| Photo 3: Pithium on bulbs. |
The soil mix used was J. Innes no.2. For every 50L we put in 2 part - 180g Andersen's bulb fertiliser (super phosphate) and 1 part dried blood, fish and bone and 50L of grit. We also top dressed it with a thick layer of gravel. At Kew they used a coir based mix. When we put in the soil about half way we put in a layer of sand too - to hold the bulbs in place. Tulips will tend to find the depth that they like also - so one can observe that they have moved when re-potting them.
