Fall is here! Shhh... don't tell the Tulips

Kees Nelis Tulip, in season now

Whether or not you're ready to put your flip flops and beach towels into storage, Fall is officially upon us. It's time to rake leaves, visit apple orchards, dress in layers, watch football, carve pumpkins, stuff turkeys... and harvest Fall Tulips, if you're part of the Sun Valley team. And it's time to write about them if you're me.

Remember when I told you about Ice Tulips a few months ago? Well, store that away with the zinc oxide. Fall Tulips are a totally different story.

Fall Tulip sprouts planted in soil,
growing in the greenhouse, Sept 28

The Fall Tulips tale is more like that of those Easter and Mother's Day favorites - Spring Tulips - just on opposite schedules. We buy the bulbs around six months before we intend to grow them, plant them in soil and store them at wintery temperatures in our coolers. When their growing season starts, we put the crates full of Tulips in soil right into the Greenhouse week by week, which allows us to do two things: control the color mix and provide a continuous supply of Tulips throughout the season. All the same as Spring Tulips.

Q: So what makes Fall Tulips different from Spring Tulips?

A: Their bulb origin.

Abba Tulips, a Fall variety

As you may already know, our Spring Tulip bulbs come from Holland. Our Fall Tulip bulbs, on the other hand, come from the opposite end of earth - New Zealand. (As it turns out, the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy isn't the only great gift the Kiwis have given us.) Using southern hemisphere bulbs allows us to grow Tulips during the North American Tulip downtime. Looking at the bigger picture, this allows us to do one of the things we do best at Sun Valley - grow Tulips year-round.

Bulbs from the Netherlands in the Northern Hemisphere (top arrow)
and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere (bottom arrow)
allow us to grow Tulips year-round

So, even though Fall is here with in all its crisp, fallen leaves glory, the Tulips we're growing are convinced it's Springtime.

Let's not tell 'em.

Check out the Fall Tulips we have in season now by clicking here!

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