Spring Bouquet Subscriptions | about the tulips
Spring 2025 bouquet subscriptions have come to a close! Take a ‘peek behind the curtain’ at spring 2025 bouquet subscriptions. Read through this year’s spring bouquet subscriber newsletters below. Learn about the planting and harvesting process along with the specific tulip varieties included in each week’s bouquet.
WEEK 1:
Late last fall I planted out thousands of specialty tulip bulbs. I started by digging a large trench in the flower bed and laid out the bulbs like eggs in a crate. The bulbs were then covered with soil. Planting them closely together encourages long stems, optimizes my growing space, and makes the harvesting process a tad bit easier. You would not want to plant your bulbs like this in your own garden, but it is the gold standard when planting for harvest!
Tulip bulbs packed in the flower beds like eggs in a crate. Late last fall I planted out thousands of tulip bulbs. I plant them right next to one another to optimize space and to make the harvest process easier.
Tulips can be organized into early, mid, and late season bloomers. I grow a few varieties of each so there is a continuous wave of early spring blooms. When it comes time to harvest, I use a pitchfork to loosen the soil around the plants and their attached bulbs. I then pull the entire plant out of the ground, bulb and all! Harvesting with the bulb still attached allows for longer stems and allows for better storage. 6-8 inches of extra stem length can be gained with this harvesting technique. Harvesting with the bulb on also helps with vase life, aka how long you get to enjoy the blooms in your vase! The bulb provides energy to the plant and it can continue to provide energy to the tulip bloom while being stored. This extra boost of energy during storage allows for a longer vase life.
The tulips on the right were just harvested with the bulbs still attached. The tulips on the left have been cleaned and prepped for arranging. The white bits of the stems were the portions hidden beneath the soil. By harvesting with the bulb still attached you get to enjoy an extra 6-8 inches of stem length!
After harvesting I rinse the stems of any mud or dirt, cut off the old bulbs, and get to arranging your bouquets! This week’s bouquets are made of some of the earliest tulips of the season, the early bloomers. Avant Garde, Foxtrot, and Lotus Love are some of the tulips you will find in your bouquet this week. They offer unique doubled forms that only get better as they age. You will find Lotus Love provides an incredibly sweet fragrance too! Look for Lotus Love’s white streaked leaves in your bouquet.
WEEK TWO:
Believe it or not, I have already ordered next year’s tulip bulbs. Tulip bulbs are ordered for the following growing season when they begin blooming in the field. This early season ordering allows for my farmers in Holland to reserve wholesale bulbs just for me and ensures I get my hands on some of my favorite varieties. Holland has experienced some rather extreme weather the last two years resulting in extremely poor tulip bulb harvests. This makes early season ordering even more important! Despite ordering so far in advance, some varieties get swapped for others at the time of shipping due to poor crop yields and storing issues. These swaps are always quite a surprise. I have found some of my favorites and some of my least favorites with last minute swaps from my bulb farmers.
Tulip La Belle Epoque. A highly doubled variety in romantic shades of blush, mauve, and caramel. This tulip bulb is challenging to secure each season. I have already reserved more bulbs for next year!
This week’s bouquet is filled with the mid season bloomers. You will find a combination of highly doubled and parrot varieties in this week’s bouquet. The doubled varieties may fool you for a peony or garden rose. As they begin to open you will notice they double in size and offer extremely ruffled petals. They have only a slight fragrance, but they make up for the lack of fragrance with their appearance.
Look for the ‘yellow meets orange’ and ‘white meets green’ tulips in your bouquet. Those are both parrot varieties. Parrot tulips get their name from their feather shaped petals. As these varieties open up the petals will look like the vibrant and multi-colored feathers of a parrot. These have always been some of my favorites. They uniquely change color and evolve as they open in the field and in the vase. The yellow/orange/red parrot tulip in your bouquet is one of those ‘farmer bulb swaps’ that I have loved this year. When the farmer had a poor harvest for the bulbs I had reserved, they asked if I would take Comet in its place. While it is not the exact variety I ordered, I have loved watching this variety in my own vase. Enjoy!
Tulip Comet. A parrot tulip variety that starts off as a vibrant mustard yellow and develops intense shades of orange and red as it ages. ‘Unexpected orange’ has become one of my favorite things in a bouquet. It offers a fresh and modern twist when paired with more traditional pastels.
WEEK THREE:
If week 1 bouquets felt more traditional to you, then this week is bringing all of the funk! This week’s bouquet takes you ‘down the rabbit hole’ with whimsical and color saturated blooms.
In this week’s bouquet you will see more parrot and double varieties, but keep an eye out for the ‘spikey’ looking purple tulips. These are a fringe variety called Tulip Cummins. This is one of the first tulips I ever grew on a production level and I don’t think it will ever disappear from my growing list! These unique blooms remind me of Dr. Suess or Alice in Wonderland, especially when paired with the other vibrant colors of this week’s bouquet.
Tulip Cummins, a fringe tulip variety. I have grown this specific tulip for half a decade and love it more and more every year.
In spring 2025 I ordered more than 600 Salmon Parrot tulips. Due to the poor Holland bulb harvest, I received only 150 of that order. Those 150 bulbs have been incredibly healthy and have produced beatiful blooms. I have saved every stem just for you! These parrot tulips come in striking shades of salmon, peach, and red. Their color intensifies as they open and I cannot wait for you to see them. They hold their shape a bit more than other parrots that tend to throw themselves open when exposed to light.
Green Wave is yet another parrot tulip joining the line up this week. Green Wave is a new-to-me variety that I have fallen in love with. Look for its green centered petals with blush on the tips. A truly modern and whimsical variety that only adds to the Alice in Wonderland feeling of this week’s bouquet! Watch how this variety flings itself open when compared to the Salmon Parrot tulip in your bouquet.
Tulip Green Wave, a parrot tulip variety. This striking tulip puts on quite the show with its apple-green centers and rose-kissed edges. I have found this variety is particularly versatile. It pairs beautifully with more romantic shades of blush, white, and toffee, though I particularly love it paired with other whimsical and colorful varieties.
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