The delicate cup shape and vibrant colors of tulips are iconic spring flowers for Easter arrangements and Mother's Day bouquets, but are they worth including in a flower farmer's business plan? While there are mistakes everyone makes when growing tulips in the garden, every stem is either a potential sale or a loss for a flower farmer. And since we need all of the space we can get to maximize profits, we can't leave the bulbs in the ground for the rest of the year to gather energy and bloom again. With only one bloom per bulb each year, new flower farmers should consider a few points about space and disease before committing to a field of tulips.
As spring flowers, tulips are naturally at risk for a devastating disease. Botrytis is a mold that causes up to $100 billion in crop losses worldwide every year. The spores of this mold need a film of water for 8 to 12 hours. Cloudy days keep condensation from evaporating off of the plant, allowing the spores to grow. It can also start inside the cooler if the tulips are damp. Once one flower has it, botrytis will spread rapidly to every other flower in that bucket or arrangement, so the loss can be heartbreaking for farmers. On the flower farm I work for, we lost nearly half of our tulip inventory to botrytis this year. Keeping tulips dry is very important because of this.
Growing tulips takes up a lot of space, especially when compared to most other flowers that are perfect for a cut flower garden. Since each bulb is used only once a season before being replaced with another plant, every square inch of space used has to be considered when planning and pricing tulips. As farmers, we tend to sell to florists, who then sell arrangements and bouquets to their clients.
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