How to Force Tulips to Bloom Inside Northlawn Flower Farm

Hi everyone, it's Danielle with Northlawn Flower Farm. Today I'm going to share with you how to force tulips so that you can really have tulips blooming inside your home in almost any month of the year. So you want to start this process when you receive your bulb order in the fall, whether you receive them in September, October, or November. Just stick however many tulip bulbs you want to force later on right in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. I put the bags just as they come from a supplier in a brown paper bag. I also like to write the date on this paper bag so I don't forget what day I put them into the refrigerator. And then I take care to not put any fruits such as apples or pears in or near the drawer because those things give off ethylene gas which can actually cause the flower inside the bulb to abort. So this crisper drawer that I have in my refrigerator is completely dedicated just to tulip or other bulbs that I plan to force such as hyacinths. Now tulips need a cooling period between 14 and 19 weeks, so that's how long they need to stay in the refrigerator. And the time they need is dependent on the variety itself and you can always find this information on the supplier's website. It should have the cooling time needed right there in the catalog or on their website. Now the one I chose to force this year is Exotic Emperor. I've also forced Apricot Beauty in the past. That one forces great. Generally the Triumph, the Fosteriana, and the Darwin tulips force the best. These earlier tulips seem to force much better than kind of those later really fancy doubles. But you know give it a try and let me know how it goes for you. Now what you do is after the 14 to 19 weeks have passed, however long that particular variety needs to chill, you just take them out of the refrigerator and pop them up. I like to use stone or terracotta and make sure your pot has a drainage hole. You actually don't need to cover the bulbs with that much soil. Just cover them and then about an inch more soil on top and then what I do is stick them in our cool dark basement for one week. Our basement is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit and it stays dark because I really don't go down there that much just to do the laundry here and there. But the reason why you want to stick them in this dark cool space for a week is so that they can put on a lot of great root growth instead of shoot growth and by doing that you'll get much stronger plants. You can see that these plants are not flopping over at all but sometimes if you take them out of cooling and put them right into a warm and really bright environment you might have some flopping over. But by giving them that week in the cool darkness you're getting a great root system established. Now after that week has passed you'll start to see a little bit of shoot growth and that shoot growth if they are grown in darkness will be yellow. Don't worry that's normal it's only because you grew them in darkness. After the week bring them up into the area in your home where you would like them to bloom at. A nice bright area with indirect light. Here we are in my dining room there's three beautiful windows in here so they get a lot of nice bright indirect light and the ambient room temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually it takes about three to four weeks for them to bloom and because they're growing inside the home the show lasts much longer than growing tulips outside where they're exposed to extreme heat and wind and who knows what else right. So that's really all there is to it and you can also do this in succession. So I took these out of cooling on March 17th it's currently April 15th you can see they're in bloom now but I still have more in my refrigerator that I plan to take out today in the hopes that they'll bloom for Mother's Day. So you can really plan out these successions so that you really have tulips whenever you want them. The main thing is just don't take the tulip bulbs out before the necessary chilling time. I wouldn't want to take the bulbs out say seven weeks into chilling and try this process. They really need that 14 to 19 weeks to put on a great show for you but you can leave them in the refrigerator longer. There's no harm in that as long as there's no apples or pears around them. So guys I hope this video was helpful. Please let me know if you have differing thoughts on foresting tulips. You know everyone's different and different methods work better for different people and different situations. A lot of people prefer to plant up the bulbs in soil in the fall and chill them in soil. The main reason why I don't do that is I just don't really have a great environment to hold lots and lots of bulbs and pots but certainly that works and is still absolutely fabulous advice. It's really just finding a method that works best for you, your particular situation and needs. So I want to wish you a great day in your gardens outside or in your inside gardens and I hope to see you sometime soon. Bye!