One of the great questions of the cut flower world is, how do we have tulips in autumn?
Most people would agree that tulips are a spring flower. But is this necessarily true? Yes, absolutely, the answer to this perplexing question is asking, where is it spring?
Walking into a flower shop or wholesaler this time of year, customers are constantly surprised to see a rack of tulips, fittingly in the yellows, oranges and warm toned bicolors of the fall color pallet. These tulips do a have a story to tell.
Common conception is that all tulip bulbs come from the Netherlands. This is a true statement for cut tulips harvested January 1st to about August 1st. For August through fall and into December the stems you see actually come from bulbs that spent their lives living in the Southern Hemisphere, specifically Chile and New Zealand. These are the main two regions where bulbs are grown, then exported by shipping containers to the USA or the Netherlands. This is where the bulb is grown into a cut flower. Being bred in the Southern Hemisphere, the bulbs actually think it is spring as they are grown in September through December in the Northern Hemisphere.
In our high-tech, whiz-bang world, this rather simple but eloquent solution to having a year-round supply of tulips is very special. We tulip growers sort of move spring, since as far as the tulips are concerned our greenhouse in Virginia is a beautiful spring environment.
Color mixes are also extremely important as brides pivot from the whites and pinks of summer to the jewel tones of fall, incorporating purples, deep reds and muted yellow. This dove tails with the oranges of Halloween, Pumpkin Spice and the whole Thanksgiving color pallet.
However, there is a color cliff a tulip grower must be very conscious of, I would wager, anyone reading this has had a similar issue, whether with tulips or a different flower.
Consumers love the fall color pallet…until they don’t. In the floral world, if you have yellow or orange flowers in your cooler on the day after Thanksgiving you have a problem. One reason they call it Black Friday is all those orange and yellow stems will turn black before you sell them!
Of course, the day after Thanksgiving everyone wants red and white tulips. As tulip growers, this is a bit more complicated, as we need to harvest the red and white tulips a few days before Thanksgiving, so they have time to be packaged and shipped across the country, and be ready for the holiday rush. This additionally means we need to have those red and white bulbs growing in the greenhouse much earlier in November.
Sure, it takes some planning, but it is well worth the stunning experience of a red and white bouquet of tulips at your holiday table.
As the holidays wrap up, we transition into Northern Hemisphere bulbs and the color pallet expands to the entire rainbow for spring.
So, this autumn as you see a tulip, remember it’s unique journey and enjoy the warmth they bring to fall.
Bill Prescott
Bloomia
