Going Dutch

Tulips perform best in cold climates, particularly those with wet winters.

Floriade. Picture: Visit Canberra.

Tulips first became fashionable in the late 16th century when bulbs sent from Turkey reached the Dutch Republic, at the time the world’s leading economic power. The intensely coloured flowers were something completely new but they quickly found a new spiritual home.

Native to central Asia, tulips had spread to China and Mongolia before they reached Europe. But when Dutch horticulturists started developing new colours and forms as more species were introduced, they began a craze that spawned the term “tulip mania”, still used to describe an economic bubble. During the early 1600s, enthusiasts and status seekers, then investors who were essentially futures traders, pushed prices so high that the contract price for a single bulb was worth more than a house. By 1637 speculative tulip trading had crashed, but the breeding and production of tulips has remained a Dutch specialty.

From simple species of single colours, breeders developed immensely popular multi-coloured blooms with streaks and stripes. We now know this effect is from a tulip-specific mosaic virus, spread by aphids. The most expensive tulip sold during tulip mania was one of these, a crimson and white form named ‘Semper Augustus’. Today there are thousands of tulip varieties in almost every colour, from plain to bicoloured, blushing, speckled or striped. The edges of the petals can be smooth, pointed, fringed, or frilled and feathery (these are called parrot tulips). There are doubles, star-shaped and goblet forms, and short, medium and tall varieties as well as early and late bloomers. In Australia, tulips flower between September and November, although bulbs can be manipulated to flower at other times and Australian-grown cut blooms are available all year.

Tulips perform best in cold climates, particularly those with wet winters. In warmer climates the bulbs need to be lifted after the leaves die back, stored through summer and chilled for six weeks in the fridge to mimic a cold climate before being planted again in autumn. The time to plant (with the pointy end of the bulb up) is when the soil cools – ideally to 14°C – which might be late April to June depending on the season and where you live. You can grow tulips in a pot but the bulbs are unlikely to flower again next year.

If you want to see masses of tulips in bloom, head for Canberra’s Floriade, a colour-saturated floral indulgence of more than a million tulips and other spring bulbs, from September 14 to October 13. While you’re there, visit nearby Tulip Top Gardens, a beautiful 4ha garden open the same dates. Tesselaar Tulip Festival in Silvan, Victoria shares those dates. Tulip Time in Bowral, NSW is from September 24 to October 7. In Western Australia, Araluen Botanic Park has displays of tulips and spring bulbs until the end of September. In Tasmania, check Wynyard’s Tulip Festival on October 12 and see Australia’s largest flower bulb farm in full flight. Table Cape Farm is a family business, open late September to mid October, with 5ha to tiptoe through. Even Queensland has tulips at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers from September 20 to 29.

Fun fact: tulips continue to grow after being cut. The stems grow towards the light and are subject to gravity, causing them to bend and swoop charmingly.

Q&A

What’s an organic remedy for pear slug on my mature pear tree? A sticky band around the trunk didn’t help. Christine Fox, Mount Gambier, SA

These slimy larvae of sawflies skeletonise the leaves of pears, cherries, crabapples, plums and quinces. They are vulnerable to desiccation from dusting trees with wood ash, talcum powder or lime (wear protective gear, wet the leaves first and stand upwind). Trunk banding won’t help as grubs drop to the ground to pupate and then fly back up. You can spray with organic pyrethrum or Dipel, or hose them off.

After months of spraying Eco-Neem for calypso beetles on my lilly pillies, they’ve diminished but not gone. Are they seasonal? Any advice? Ned Sparkes, Brisbane

This native beetle, Paropsides calypso, has exploited the popularity of lilly pilly hedges. Favouring Syzygium species, both the green larvae and round, green beetles eat from the leaf edges inwards and can strip plants. Little is known about seasonality, as it has become a pest so recently. There are no products yet registered to treat it but anecdotally Eco-neem is effective; adding Eco-oil helps it stick. Because the larvae pupate in the soil, it’s difficult to eradicate. Chickens would help clean them up.

Our eight-year-old pepper vine (Piper nigrum) produces good harvests. Should it be pruned? When and how hard? Terry Mills, Lake Eacham, Qld

This tropical vine can reach 7m but commercially they’re trained on frames or posts. Pruning the climbing, leader shoots and any long shoots hanging from the top stimulates growth of the lateral shoots that bear flowers and fruit. You can do this any time.

Cranlana.

Send your questions to: [e-mail] or Helen Young, PO Box 3098, Willoughby North, NSW 2068. Website: helenyoung.com.au. The best question for September wins a copy of the new book Cranlana: The First 100 Years, the story of the Myer family seat and its garden, worth $80