UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
K BULLETIN No. 1082 HK 
lH 
"^WV. 
Washington, D. C. 
October 19, 1922 
THE PRODUCTION OF TULIP BULBS. 
By David Griffiths, Horticulturist, Office of Horticultural and Pomological 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
The tulip bulb 2 
Preparation of the soil for tulips 3 
Laying out lands for planting 3 
Planting tulips 4 
Treatment of the beds after planting 10 
Age of flowering bulbs 11 
Blindness 12 
Relation of size of bulb to size of flower 12 
Early maturity affecting the blossoming 
season 13 
Sale of flowers 13 
Removing the flowers 14 
When tulips are ripe 15 
Digging tulips 15 
Droppers 17 
The bulb house 18 
Packing tulips for shipment 25 
Preparation of stocks for planting 27 
Implements of tulip-bulb production 28 
The duty of labor 30 
Soils 33 
Enemies of tulips 36 
Why some varieties are cheaper than others. . 38 
Performance records 39 
GOOD TULIPS can be grown in America at a profit. They have 
already been produced in sufficient quantities and for a period 
long enough to command respect. 
The tulips already produced experimentally are as good as the best. 
They bed, they force, they produce, and they reproduce normally 
under American conditions. This, coupled with the prospect of a 
profit in the growing, should beget a new industry in America. This 
industry, however, it is believed, must develop slowly, for experience 
is necessary and is as slowly acquired in this as in any other horti- 
cultural venture. It is also probable that the industry will not be 
more than supplementary to the existing sources of supply for many 
years, for it is scarcely probable that it can do more than meet the 
increment of tulip-bulb consumption which is certain when our 
economic conditions and transportation facilities again become 
normal. 
There is, however, no limit to the quantity of bulbs which it is 
possible to produce in the United States. We have climates that are 
unexcelled for the production of these stocks. We have regions with 
102949°— 22— Bull. 1082 1 
