How to grow tulips in winter
“How do you have tulips in the months of September, October, November and December?”
Starting in late August, Sun Valley starts harvesting their Rainforest Alliance Certified tulips which have been on a very special journey. They are now beginning their Southern Hemisphere tulip program, which basically means picking tulip bulbs which have been living in New Zealand their whole lives. With the seasons reversed on the bottom of the globe, these tulips truly believe it is spring.
The tulips bloomed out during the spring and summer in New Zealand, in what would be fall and winter in Humboldt County. They bloom outside in October and November. Then they are dug up in January, and packaged up to ride in a container ship across the Pacific Ocean to California. The bulbs arrive in May, and then the team gets busy getting all of them planted in soil filled crates by early July.
At this stage the tulips start rooting in the cooler complex, as Sun Valley keeps the environment similar to what it would be in New Zealand winter or early spring.
Of course, some tulip varieties are early bloomers and some bloom late, so this same progression for spring, happens for the fall tulip program as well.
Read more at the Sun Valley blog.