The Wild Tulips in Iran

The wild tulips in Iran: seeing how they would be kept cold and relatively dry under a blanket of winter snow explains how even modern hybrid tulips benefit from time in the crisper or a refrigerator before fairly late planting.  Although we tend to plant bulb seed in autumn, for those bulbs which are covered by snow it seems very unlikely that in the wild they would germinate in autumn only to be cut down very soon afterwards.  If in doubt, it may pay to plant half one’s seed in autumn, and keep the other half in the crisper, and then sow in late winter. I was able to get some narcissus seed to germinate following the latter process. 

I may also order some puschkinia seed and put them in the crisper before sowing.  In Iran, the puschkinia was flowering just below the snow melt. There may well be other bulbs that would do better with a spell in the crisper: one would need to check their origins on the internet before experimenting.  Also, I suspect that many of the bulbs in Iran would be relatively deep in the soil, to protect them from overheating during the long, hot summer. It may pay to experiment with depth of planting to see if any difference emerges. 

G.C.