Tulips are one of the most beautiful and decorative plants that we can have at home. However, as they can not always be available, there is a way to deceive them so that they flourish out of season and get them always accessible, regardless of the time of the year in which we find ourselves. This is achieved thanks to the water, which manages to make the tulips bloom without even the need for soil.
If you also want to plant tulips without soil and you want to learn how to grow tulips in water, keep reading.
How to grow tulips in water?
One of the aspects that must be taken into account before launching ourselves to cultivate tulips in water is to correctly select the type of tulip that interests us. The first thing we have to keep in mind is that we will need tulip bulbs , not seeds. The bulbs of the tulips can be kept from one year to another and thus have them always available without the need to buy new seeds. However, we must bear in mind that, in order to make them bloom in water, it will be, precisely, the bulbs that will interest us and not the seeds.
When selecting a variety of tulip suitable for this process, we will find that there will be a wide range to choose from. This may make the choice difficult, but as a general rule, we can consider that the larger the bulb, the more likely that flowering in water will be successful. In this way, more than the fact of deciding on one type or another, what we should do is choose bulbs of large tulips or, at least, that have a healthy and vigorous appearance. While we will discard the smallest and thinnest, which we will reserve to plant them on land.
Preserve tulip bulbs
Tulips bloom in spring. This causes the bulbs to be adapted to flower after a period of cold. In this way, if you recreate the conditions of winter, you can get them to flourish ahead of time. Many of the bulbs that are sold are already treated with this cold treatment, so it will be a step that we can skip.
However, in the event that this is not the case, it is recommended to introduce the tulip bulbs for about a week in the fridge. It is important that the temperature is always between 1 and 10 degrees. If it were below, the bulbs would freeze, whereas if they were at a higher temperature, we would not be able to deceive them. Likewise, it is also important that they are in a container separate from the rest of the food since they can influence each other. The best thing is to introduce the bulbs in a glass jar and leave it inside the refrigerator without the lid on. After a week, we will remove them and they will be ready to be placed in the vase.
Plant tulips in vases
Once we have the right tulip bulbs, we will prepare a container similar to a vase. If you do not have, it also serves a large glass. Then, we must do the following:
- In this container, we will place a base of stones or marbles, something that allows pouring water and that it remains in the lower part while the bulbs hold in the upper one, but without touching the water.
- The most important thing of the process is that the bulbs should not be in direct contact with the water, since, if so, they will rot. But they must be close enough so that the presence of water stimulates their growth.
- Once we have the container or vase with the stones ready, we will add water until it is a couple of fingers below the surface.
- Next, we will place the bulbs on the stones, so that they do not touch the water but they are quite close.
- We will keep it that way and, as the water evaporates, we will fill it up so that it always stays at the same height.
After a few days, we will begin to see how the bulbs begin to take root at the bottom and that these roots extend in the direction of the water. Likewise, the stem of the tulip will also begin to bloom at the top. Little by little, the bulbs will be transformed into adult tulips, eventually blooming after about three months.