Tags
bulbs, gardening, landscaping, propagation, seeds, spring bulbs, tulips
Tulip Propagation
I recently mentioned to someone, I had produced a large tulip seed pod.
Me: “No, I mean seed pod.”
Her: “No honey, tulips grow from bulbs.”Me: “And they also can grow bulbs from seeds.”
The conversation went around a little as she still seems to think she’s right. She encouraged me to do a little reading. Unfortunately for her, I already had. In fact, I’ve tried to allow some of my tulips to seed over for 4 years now. I know the plant uses all its energy to generate the seed pod and the bulb is spent for the next year or two, until it regenerates its own energy again.
Tulip Seed Pod
Propagation #1
Tulip bulbs (like most bulbous plants) naturally split from year to year, creating smaller bulbs which will take a few years to produce blooms. These new bulbs will produce blooms the same color as the parent tulip.
Propagation #2
By not trimming the dead tulips bloom, the seed pod will begin to form, if it was properly pollinated. The foliage needs to be completely brown, before the seeds are ready. When the seed pod is ready, it’ll brown and begin to crack open. This is the time to collect the seeds from the tulips. Once the seeds are sown, you’ll have to wait to see what they will look like.
There are many reasons the second method had not yet worked for me. I’ve cut all my pollinated tulip blooms for centerpieces. Animals each the flowers. Thunderstorms snap the stem of the flower before the seed pod is ready, it all depends on what other tulips were used to pollinate this.
Growing little bulbs from the seeds can be less or more work depending on what method you plan to use and what outcome you want.
Method #1
Sow seeds in loose soil, several inches down. Cover and allow mother nature to do the rest. Weed if necessary. You may lose some to ants, grubs and other garden pests.
Method #2
Put seeds in a plastic bag with a little peat moss. Keep seeds in the crisper drawer for just over three months. Plant each seed in a soil tray and water. Keep the soil moist, not dry and you’ll begin to see growth. After two leaves have grown, plants may start to brown and die back. Continue to water until all foliage is brown and dried up. At this point you should have tiny bulbs. You may lose some due to lack of watering or over-watering, so carefully monitor your soil. You can transplant them into separate pots and maintain them until your fall planting season.
Young Wifey's Blog 
This year I planted tulips for the first time and they went to seed because I did not know whether to deadhead them or leave them to die back naturally. Your blog post has helped me because now I know what to do with that seed pod. And I won’t feel bad when the tulip doesn’t bloom next year, because I know what to expect. I hope I can get my seeds to grow! That would be exciting. Now if I could figure out what to do about my hyacinths, I’d be happy. 😀 Thanks.
Hyacinths should seed over as well! As long as they were pollinated 🙂
about how many seeds per plant?
Depends on the size of the tulip and how it matures. This one yielded about 50 seeds.
Alright thank you!
🙂
Hi there, I have tulip seed pods that are drying up and hard (leaves are almost all brown as well). But they are not plump at all! Do they still have seeds in there? I guess I need to know what to look for…
They might not have been pollinated and formed seeds. Crack one open and take a look.
I am a trained botanist (yes with a degree). This is an excellent article. Well done!
Hostas luv/hate
Luv: they grow anywhere full sun dappled sun shade shallow roots can mow uptight prefer solid color when in full bloom I straw wrap all the bloom arms 1/3 from the top giving them a bird cage look
Hate yrly cropping to keep small other people who don’t fall mow leaves (I set my mower at highest level and mow over them) before the frost turns them into melted blobs of gross
This is a very interesting article! I am glad I found your story about this seed pod! I too, am very intrigued by this & no one else seems to have any idea about it! I sure didn’t, until a few weeks ago! Last fall was the first time I ever planted tulips! I bought a bag of 30 bulbs & was so excited when every one of them popped up & bloomed! They were so huge & magnificent! My neighbors complimented me daily! Being a first time tulip planter, I read many articles about them. However, I was very disappointed when I read that… “even though tulips are technically perennials, true tulip lovers treat them as annuals & plant new bulbs every year” It said something about, many bulbs are now hybrids & they tend not to come back! I was so upset! I tried to find out everything thing I could about tulips so I could help them rejuvenate & one suggestion said to trim off the stem once the flower dies so the bulb can save up energy for the next year. After they bloomed, I noticed only 2 flowers had this big seed pod on it! I was so happy! I will try your suggestion & hopefully I will get new bulbs! Thank you!