Let’s Talk Tulips

Hey there,

Let’s talk a little bit (or a lot-a-bit) about tulips! These are, thanks to the magic of greenhouse growing, something we’re able to sell all year round. You, we, and everyone in between absolutely love them. They’re a huge seller for us around Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, make an oh-so stunning centerpiece come Thanksgiving, and are also a really fun way to celebrate the winter holidays too! Knowing how beloved these blooms continue to be, we thought it’d be fun to talk about some of the varieties we love most and some of the most common topics we get questions on about these greenhouse gems. Let’s get into it!

When we talk tulips here at Farmgirl, one of the most common varieties you’ll see are a standard or a single tulip. You can tell these apart from other varieties because they have a little bit of a smaller bloom size and kinda look like a chunky paint brush. One of the reasons we love these single tulips and use them so often is not only are they simply the cutest things we’ve ever seen but there are so many colors to work with. From pinks to oranges to yellows to some even displaying a stunning ombre effect, there truly is a tulip for everyone’s floral style or bouquet design needs. Single tulips, although may appear small out of the box, open up nice and big as they bloom, just give them a little time after receiving them in your online flower delivery and, we promise, the bloom will be worth the wait!

The second type of tulip we love to ship in our arrangements is called a novelty tulip, which is a pretty big category that encompasses a few varieties of anything that’s sort of fancier than your standard tulip. Novelty tulips also tend to have a little bigger of a bloom size and are a touch wider in general. Fringe, or a Queensland tulip, is one of our faves that got their name from the ruffled edges of the tulip petals which are so beautiful and adds so much character to an arrangement. There’s also double tulips, which are super similar to the single tulips we talked about earlier but with extra petals (more is more, right?). And last but certainly not least, we couldn’t talk about novelty tulips without an honorable mention to the Parrot tulip, which have these oh-so-delectable, scalloped petals that are simply to die for.

Now that we’ve talked about some of our faves, let’s get into one question we get most often from those who receive a tulip delivery - what to do with all that tulip foliage! Tulips will arrive with some of their leaves on and the state of the foliage itself can vary. Sometimes, a tulip’s foliage is totally that girl from that one hair commercial with perfect, luscious locks ready to model the world’s next viral product while others arrive with foliage that is a little lackluster. The good news here is that the state of those leaves have absolutely no bearing on the health of the tulip itself, so if you see a tulip with some sad looking foliage, gently pull down to remove it and you’re good to go. This process of “detailing” or “processing” the flower is really just a way to get the stem looking super vase ready and ready for your feed (because who doesn’t want that IG worthy pic?) but isn’t required in order to have healthy tulips.

The other topic we hear most upon arrival of a tulip delivery is that of the type of vase to use when styling your arrangement. If you didn’t receive a vase in the box that we paired with your Farmgirl arrangement already, and didn’t choose from one of our add-on vases, you can choose from your private collection. While that collection may not be as extensive as ours here at Farmgirl (guilty as charged!), our top pick for tulips is something on the taller side and something just a bit wider than the size of all the tulips going into the vase. The goal here is to really create a supportive environment for these taller, naturally-going-to-arch stems so they don’t topple over. The number one mistake we see when picking a vase is something that’s too wide, which creates too much negative space between the stems to allow for that fullness we love in an arrangement.

Now you may be wondering if and how you can use that short, but simply stunning vase in a color that is to die for when paired with the tulips you received. We typically don’t recommend using a shorter vase for tulips only because these stems tend to do what we call the “swan dive” and lean off to the side in a droopier fashion. If you ask us, cutting those tulip stems down short so they are supported in that short vase could be absolutely stunning, even as they sway to the side. However (and don’t say we didn’t warn you!), we’ve found that a lot of customers don’t prefer this and find that look to be more concerning than a work of art. To avoid that, go with the taller vase option and keep as much of that foliage on as you can to help keep the flowers standing upward vs arching over the side of your vase.

The last thing we want to touch on is that when you get your online flower delivery order, give your blooms time. Some tulips can look a little green straight out of the box, dull in color, and/or closed up upon arrival but don’t panic. We send tulips to you in bud form so you can enjoy them through their entire bud cycle – after all, we wouldn’t want even a moment of their bloom life to occur in the box with no one to admire how stunning they are. These beauties just need a little time to cute-en up, get rehydrated, and continue growing (psst… tulips are one of the few flowers that continue to grow out of the box). After a few days, you’ll see them come to life, start to bloom and open beautifully and expose those inner petals perfectly.

xx,

Team Farmgirl