How to Force Tulips for Winter Bloom

Under the category of “I Should Have Known Better,” I planted a swath of tulip bulbs in our backyard without any of those fancy contraptions to protect them from the squirrels. In my mind I had visions of us all just getting along; I’d leave peanuts, hunks of bread and apple chunks for the whole fuzzy gang, and in return they would leave my tulips in the earth to flower beautifully next spring. Ha! You know where this is going, right?

Tulips rescued from those jerky-boy squirrels

Yes, the squirrels are mischievous, it’s just their nature I suppose. These are the tulip bulbs that I was able to salvage. Most had their little pointy tops nibbled on, but for the most part they were in good enough shape to go to Plan B, which is to plant them in pots for indoor forcing and winter bloom. If you want to have tulips blooming indoors during those long grey months of January and February, now is the time to plant them. All you need are the bulbs, potting soil and containers with a drainage hole. If you want to cover the drainage hole with a piece of screen or even some broken crockery to prevent some of the soil from washing out that’s up to you. Personally, I never bother. A note about purchasing bulbs: You never want to buy bulbs that are packaged in opaque wrappings. You need to SEE the bulbs so you know that you’re not purchasing any that are squishy and moldy.

Step 1: Fill your container with potting soil and plant tulip bulbs

Step 1: Fill your chosen containers with potting soil so it’s just a few inches from the surface of the pot. With the flat part of the bulbs facing down and pointy side up, evenly space your tulip bulbs on top of the soil surface. Typically for the number of bulbs you want to plant, that should be the largest diameter of the pot. So example: 7 bulbs should be planted in a 7″ pot. You want the top of the pointy tips of the bulbs to be just under the rim of the pot.

Step 2: Cover tulip bulbs with additional soil and water

Step 2: Top up with additional potting soil so that it just covers the bulbs enough that the pointy tips are showing. I used my fingers to gently press in soil around the sides of the bulbs to fill in any gaps. After that, give it a good soaking with water and adjust soil levels as needed.

Step 3: Place containers in a dark, cold location

Step 3: Place your containers in a dark location where they will have temperatures around the 35-45 degree mark. Our garage is unheated so my tulips will go in there inside a metal cabinet to keep them in darkness and protected from ranging chipmunks. Periodically check your bulbs so see if the soil has dried out and if it has, give them a little water. After about 3 months (this varies depending on the variety of tulip bulbs you select) you should see some signs of growth such as some green shoots emerging from the tips or even roots underneath the pot. When that happens, you should bring your containers to a low-light, slightly warmer scenario (such as a basement) until you see evidence of leaves. After that, you’re good to go! Bring them into your home, keep them well-watered, and in just a few weeks you should have beautiful flowering tulips to cheer your winter days and remind you spring will arrive.

Some Final Thoughts…

**Early-flowering varieties of tulips will probably perform better for forcing than the late-spring flowering varieties. Of course, all I have are the late spring kind, so oh well. We’ll see how this goes!

**For staggered blooms throughout winter, remove containers from wherever you’re keeping them for cold storage every week or so.

**Tulip flowers will wither if kept too warm and dry, so place them in the chilliest spot to prolong their life cycle. A cold window away from a heating source is a good location.

**Keep fruits, such as apples and pears, that produce ethylene gas away from your tulip bulbs during cold storage.