Treatment of Tulip bulblets . . .

A couple of weeks back I lifted about 100 Red tulips & dried them off in trays. Late September I intend to replant them in what will be their final position.
What concerns me is that I seem to have a great deal of 'bulblets' which have dropped off!
What is the best thing to do with them?
Do you just grow them on in a nursery bed?
Some tips would be appreciated.

 

Hi David

I had a grand trip to the bulb fields of Holland a few weeks ago. And visited the Keukenhoff gardens, which has marvellous display of tulips. One question that I have always wanted to know is how they propagate Tulips. In the gardens I spoke to an expert, and he explained that things like Hyacinths can be propagated by scraping the bulb and forcing it to grow many small bulblets on the mother bulb. However he said that there was no such way with Tulips and the only way to increase them was naturally. I had loads of other questions, but his English wasn't that good.

My conclusion was that they must be allowed to propagate naturally like yours, and that the bulbs are then graded. The largest are sold as flowering bulbs and the rest are grown on for another year. So I think the answer to your question is the only the larger bulbs will flower, and you can either plant the smaller bulbs with them or grow them in a separate nursery bed.

One thing that I learnt some time ago, is that the large blousey flowering bulbs tend to die out over time. I don't know if this is an inherent problem or due to rotting off in wet winters. I have read in many places that if you want Tulips to naturalise (ie increase naturally) then the ones to buy are the small species and their hybrids, such as kaufmania, sprengeri and greigii etc. It might be worth Googling this aspect. I now only grow these smaller varieties and they do come back and multiply.

 

@PeterS
Thank you for your detailed reply, much appreciated.
I do intend to leave my red tulips to remain in their next planting location, so I will plant the large of the plantlets with them and grow on the remainder in a nursery patch.
I shall also consider following your lead in naturalising some of the smaller varieties.