Hi,

I planted about ten billion tulip bulbs in my garden last fall. They were from a tulip producer up north of Bellingham. The bulbs looked good when they went in the ground and they were planted in pretty good soil and compost. However, lots of them have weird blooms that do a u turn and pint droopily downward. The same plants seem to have diseased foliage...purplish brown leaves. I'm wondering if they just got too wet from all this month's rains, or if they got too cold? Or do they have some nasty tulip disease and if so should i pull them all up? A lot of them are healthy looking and beautiful.

Also...when you deadhead a tulip...do you just pluck the bloom and leave the stem standing naked or do you deadhead the stem back down to the leaves. They look kind of weird with the blooms plucked off but that is what I have been doing as they start to fade.

Help me, all you tulip lovers! Thanks!

I don't know what is causing any of your tulips to droop and have brown leaves. It might be too much water but I had some do that when I transplanted the bulbs during the bloom. They pulled through but sure looked weird. Come to find out, my daughter was pouring water and fertilizer to them and they couldn't take it. However you don't need to dead head tulips. They do it themselves. About a month after the plants have completely finished blooming, I mow them down. But they need at least 3 weeks of plain green growth for feeding of the bulb and bloom next year. And that is the sum total of my knowledge of tulips. Mostly I just plant and leave them alone and they grow.

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GO DAWGS!