The Amazing French Tulip

The Amazing French Tulip

French Tulips Mrs. John T. Scheepers Redwood Grove French Tulips spring tulips

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite tulips on the farm...the spectacular, breath-taking, and singular French Tulip.  Before I continue my hymn of praise, I should probably explain why this particular tulip is so fantastic.  French tulips are unique because they are the tallest and biggest of the tulips.  And when I say tall, I mean over two feet tall, and when I say big, I mean blooms the size of an adult hand.

So how do they grow so tall and have the largest bud size on tulip record? Aside from stellar coastal weather (cool days and nights) and tried-and-true hoop house management, the original French Tulip arose from a floral mutation over 80 years ago.

Freshly picked French Tulips tower over their crates (see photo on left)

Mrs. Scheepers

French Tulips are mutations of a Single Late Tulip (SLT) variety, known as Mrs. John T. Scheepers.  This is the big, bright, yellow tulip that has been referred to as “The Mother of all Tulips.” Where did this "Mother" come from?

It came from John Theodore Scheepers, a Dutchman who arrived to the United States in 1897, at the ripe age of 19.  Within a few years he founded his own flower bulb importing company, John Scheepers, Inc., which revolutionized the bulb industry in America.  He has been credited with introducing new garden design concepts, such as mass bulb plantings, as well as establishing the tulip as a central spring motif.  Because of his efforts, the importation and use of Dutch flower bulbs increased tremendously for decades, and Scheepers earned the moniker, "The Tulip King." 

In 1930, Scheepers introduce the tetraploid hybrid tulip, Mrs. John T. Scheepers (so named for his wife Rose Dorothy Heywood).  Tetraploid varieties contain twice as many chromosomes and twice as much genetic material as "normal" tulip varieties.  This means it is a "super-tulip" -- super-tall, super-strong, super-colorful.

 This is why we have branded our French Tulips, Redwood Grove.  It seems only fitting to name them after the tallest, strongest trees in the world that also share our Northern California shores.
 
We have been growing French Tulips for decades, and while we offer them year-round, we also plant and plan our varieties and colors in accordance with the seasons.  Below are the varieties we will be offering this Spring -- some are renowned favorites (Avignon, Clearwater, Flaming Parrot) and a few are exciting new offerings (Jonquires, Gigondas).

Joining the 22 tulips above are 5 varieties from our exclusive "Pride Series." Breeders of the Pride Series only grant permission to one grower per tulip producing nation to grow their Pride Tulips, and in the United States, we are it! Quantities are limited, so if you want a truly unique French Tulip, call your sales rep soon. Coming in from the fields this spring will be apricot, bi-color, coral, purple, and red .

This Spring, why not "go big?" Try our French Tulips and have fun playing with their height, or cut them short and make their big blooms the focal point.  Create elegant centerpieces, interesting and fun designs, or simply place them in a vase by themselves and enjoy the spectacular and singular beauty that is all their own.

What do Redwoods and French Tulips Have in Common?

What do Redwoods and French Tulips Have in Common?

#CAGrown #Redwoods coast redwoods French Tulips Mrs. John T. Scheepers northern california Redwood Grove French Tulips Single Late Tulips SLT

The North Coast of California gives us the majestic Coast Redwoods, the tallest trees on this planet.  The cool, coastal climate up here in Northern California allows for their amazing growth—plenty of fog, plenty of rain, and steady, temperate summers.  This ideal environment responsible for our region's "Redwood Curtain," is also what allows us to grow some of the best bulb flower around, including our French Tulips.

 Redwood Grove French Tulips

Our French Tulips, much like the Redwoods on our shores, are the tallest and biggest of all the tulips, which is why we branded them with pride: Redwood Grove French Tulips.  French Tulips are mutations of a Single Late Tulip (SLT) variety, known as Mrs. John T. Scheepers, which has been referred to as the "Mother of all Tulips."  The original tulips were grown and picked in the Cote d’Azur region of Southern France, which led to the name French Tulips.

These French Tulip Hybrids are highly sought after for their incredible height, strong stems, large, shapely flowers, and genetic vitality, aka, long vase life.  And when we say incredible height, we mean incredible height! Redwood Grove French Tulips are picked when they are at a minimum height of 24 inches. 
 

The challenge for the flower farmer lies in the growing conditions needed for optimal French Tulip height and quality. Unlike standard tulips, which are grown in greenhouses and can be influenced by changing temperature and light conditions, French Tulips refuse to be manipulated in this way.

French Tulips do not tolerate glass greenhouse conditions--they prefer to be planted in hoop houses, where that cool, coastal weather (the same that helps those tall redwoods grow) can move freely through their rows. 

The wonderful thing about this process is that it leads to stunning, super-tall tulips that are bursting with color and personality.  The foliage is a rich green which highlights the bright bloom, and the stems are big and strong in order to support the large, egg-shaped bloom heads--just check out the customer favorite, Renown Unique, below. 

The incredibly popular, and aptly-named, Renown Unique

With their tall height and large buds, customers sometimes express concern that their French tulips will fall over.  However, Redwood Grove French tulips are quite good at keeping their form, especially with our thick and sturdy stems--all you need to do re-hydrate your Frenchies correctly and you will be able to enjoy your tall arrangement for weeks. 


French Tulip Care and Handling

Step 1: After purchasing Redwood Grove French Tulips, simply trim the ends while the tulips are still in their sleeve.  Keeping the sleeve on is key! Whatever form the tulips are in when they're re-hydrating is the form that they will keep.

Step 2: Dissolve a flower food packet in a clean vase filled with water and place the still-sleeved tulips in the vase and leave 'em like that for at least four hours.


Step 3: After four hours, remove the sleeve.


Step 4:
Place the tulips back in the water-filled vase, and keep them in a cool location out of direct sunlight.

Step 5: Enjoy, replenish water as needed, and keep watching! Tulips continue growing in water, so your already-tall French Tulips can gain up to 5 more inches in height while in the vase. 

I took some of my favorite French tulip varieties home to try out this technique last week.  Here is how they looked in the days following the in-sleeve hydration technique:

 

As you can see, a little French Tulip care and handling goes a long way! These Frenchies continued standing straight while their stems grew taller, their leaves loosened up, and their buds gained color.  Watching cut tulips continue to go through their growing cycle is fascinating; my favorite moment is when their flower buds open up and you get a peek inside to their eye.


If you are a fan of standard tulips, why not try French Tulips, which have the same vivid colors, but larger blooms, longer stems, and a height that is perfect for creating tall centerpieces, impressive designs, and really special gifts.  Take a little bit of Northern California's Redwood Forest home with you when you buy our Redwood Grove French Tulips.

Spring Abounds, Better Hold On.

Spring Abounds, Better Hold On.

Arcata French Tulips Iris Oxnard spring

It would be just like spring in California
To know your love would be mine
             from the song "Take Me" performed by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.

Early spring on a California flower farm is something to behold. Having farms at both ends of the state, Sun Valley has two very different micro-climates happening right now, and both are going off.

Arcata

Looking out my window in Arcata, the wind is blowing a big wet storm in from the south west.  The hoop houses that are brimming with French Tulips and Hyacinth are shaking in the steady breeze. Clouds are moving fast across the horizon, sometimes dropping a quick deluge of rain, other times surprising everyone with a burst of sun.

Our Arcata Farm

Right now you hear constant reports of the California drought, and though the rain started later than usual this year, our farm nestled on the redwood of Humboldt County is on it's way to normal precipitation for the year. We added another couple inches over the weekends, and one decent sized earthquake Sunday night. 6.9 on the Richter Scale, with no damage on the farm.

This early spring time is a keeping our growers and picking team really busy. The French Tulip harvest is stunning. Our Frenchies are the giants of the tulip world, the blooms are as big as a coffee cup and the colors are rich as King Midas himself.

Our "Pink Pride" French Tulip.

Oxnard

Oxnard traditionally starts to really warm up as we get through March. Right now their highs are in the mid-70's. Over the last few weeks they've had a few drenching rains, which have spurred our big Iris and Matsumoto Aster crops on to new heights. As it warms up more in the coming weeks our Lily harvest will be moving back to Arcata where it will remain until the fall.

I asked GerritVanderkoy, our head grower in Oxnard, what was happening on the farm. 

"The recent rain we received was a welcome sight, we can always use more."

Growing Iris in spring

He continued, "Our iris love this spring weather, the crop is coming in really nice, as are our Matsumoto Asters. Right now the flowers we grow outside are looking especially strong."

(Check out this 1 minute video on our Matsumotos from the Field in Focus Series.)

I asked what other crops are enjoying the spring weather,

"We are picking a lot of Matricaria and Freesia, and our Delphinium varieties really like the spring weather, it's growing in leaps and bounds." 

Sun Valley excels at a several things. Team work, year-round flower production  and cold chain management to name just a few. However, every year when spring rolls around and the flowers take advantage of Mother Nature's generosity; with the perfect blend of rain, sun, clouds and warmth, it is impressive to see flowers nearly leaping from the soil, reaching for the sky and growing fast.

Spring abounds!

This is the time of year when flower growing looks easy. We work in concert with Mother Nature and direct traffic as the flowers take off on their own initiative. Better hold on.     

French Tulip Season is Now, Learn More!

French Tulip Season is Now, Learn More!

Dordogne French Tulips Maureen Mrs. John T. Scheepers Redwood Grove French Tulips Rose Heywood Sauternes Tulip King

“The fountain is my speech. The tulips are my speech. The grass and trees are my speech.”


                                                                                             -George T. Delacorte (1894-1991)

“Take these French Tulips Home, and tell me what you think.” Those were the instructions I was given last Friday, towards the end of the day. I lay the 4 10-stem bunches on my desk. Dang, these things are big. I checked out the variety labeled on each one; Maureen, Sauternes and two bundles of Dordogne. Now, my desk isn’t huge, but these bundles of our Redwood Grove French Tulips sure are.

I cruised home, with Friday and a cocktail on my mind, burst through the door, “Look Honey, I brought you flowers!” This used to illicit quite a response; however, once I took a job at Sun Valley, it has been warring thin. These French Tulips are a very special item, so I swept the clutter off the counter in preparation for getting these beauties in a vase. When you bring home a bunch of tulips, any type, you should always cut the ends, then leave them in the sleeve for about 4 hours while they sit in plenty of water. This ensures that when you take the sleeve off, they will stand up straight…otherwise you get droopy tulips.

Wow, these tulips are stout. Thick stems and rich foliage, this actually made it a bit of challenge to get them in the vase, I had to add a mason jar.


4 hours in water before removing from sleeves.

While these Frenchies spent their 4 hours in the sleeve, I had ample time to ponder the history and significance of the French Tulips. Generally all French Tulips (Except our awesome white Clearwater) are mutations of the Single Late variety named Mrs. John T. Scheepers. This is the big, bright, yellow tulip which many growers refer to as “The Mother of all Tulips.” It has been cultivated for centuries and this exact variety was officially introduced in 1930. It is named after Rose Dorothy Heywood, who was the wife of John Theodore Scheepers. Mr. Scheepers founded the firm of John Scheepers, Inc., which revolutionized the bulb industry in America. He is renowned for the creation of mass plantings for gardens and making the tulip the central spring motif. For this achievement in popularizing the Tulip, he became known as the "Tulip King". His horticultural introductions, which included prized tulips, lilies and dahlias, made him an outstanding figure in the field of horticulture. Mr. Scheepers passed way in 1938, and he left an amazing legacy which we still feel today.

These tulips were originally grown and picked in the south of France, in the Cote d’Azur region. This led to the name French Tulips, when they started being exported.

Frenchies just out of their sleeve. 

After 4 hours, I unsheathed the tulips and was able to get them all in my vase. The vase pictured here is 12 inches tall, so you can see the height of these tulips, and remember, they will grow an additional 3-5 inches while in the vase! This was about 9:30 p.m. on Friday, so I was anticipating how they would look Saturday morning, as they started to color up and adjust to their new life.

Saturday morning.

Saturday morning found our tulips, warming up in color and standing tall and straight.

Saturday evening.

By Saturday evening, they were looking even better.



Sunday Afternoon.

And Sunday afternoon, they really hit their stride, as several really started to open up and the stems were taking on a life of their own, adding girth to the arraignment as the stems each reached for the best lighting conditions.

The term “Single Late Tulip” comes from the fact that this variety blooms after all other varieties of tulip. The single late tulip class (class 5) incorporates Darwin Tulips, old Breeder Tulips, Cottage Tulips and Scheeper Hybrid Tulips. The borderline between these former classes, due to hybridization and mutation, is no longer as obvious as in the past. Blooms are large, shapely and available in an immense range of colors, perched on long, strong stems.

The challenge for the flower grower lies in the conditions needed for optimal results. French Tulips can’t be pushed, they are a very stubborn variety. Our standard tulips are a lot more accommodating in their growth patterns. In the green house, we can turn up the heat to bring them to harvest sooner, we can fool them with what season it is (for our Summer Tulips) and we can adjust light levels to dictate height.

French Tulips will not stand for this! Like our other tulips, we get them started in the rooting cooler, however after rooting; the Frenchies are on their own. They will not tolerate the big Dutch glass greenhouses, they prefer to be in a hoop house, much more exposed to Mother Nature’s whim than a normal tulip. Once in the hoop house we have very little control of the growing process. We hope for a good combination of sun and consistent temperatures, and let Mother Nature take her course.

Frenchies in the hoop house.

The wonderful thing about this process is that it leads to stunning tulips, bursting with personality. The stems are big and strong, the blooms are large and egg shaped. The foliage is a rich green color which sets off the bright flower.

Admittedly, I am spoiled with flowers, and I’m sure many of you are as well. Big crazy blooms of all different species are the norm here at Sun Valley, not the exception. What kept grabbing my attention with these tulips were their stems. How well engineered they are. On a single stalk they hold an enormous bud, and they are able to move to find the best lighting circumstances, even when they are no longer in the soil. The stems were so long, it seemed I could almost braid them together… so I gave it a try.

Braided French Tulips.

I think tulips are the most surprising flower, just when you think you have them figured out, they show another aspect of their personality. Perhaps this is why a person like Lane DeVries has been growing tulips his whole life, and why his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather before him all pursued the same occupation with an unparalleled devotion.

Right now is French Tulip Season at Sun Valley, lets see how well you braid tulips.