Tulips

I have some tulips in a pot that are flowering-

 Do you know why they they don't have stems? I'm sure I bought  'normal' bulbs....

Hi Judith2,

These bulbs have started flowering early – most tulips don't flower until April-May – and they are so far ahead that they haven't properly formed their flower stems. I suspect that the stems will start to lengthen eventually. I'd blame the weird spring weather, with extreme cold and warm spells close together, for tricking the bulbs into blooms. It's nothing to worry about and I suspect that if you keep the bulbs, they'll form proper flowers next spring.

Hi Judith2, have you seen this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2012/apr/18/why-tulips-short-stumpy

Kate

Judith2.  Was glad to see I wasn't the only one with 'stumpy' tulip flowers this year. The little ones in this pot with the stripey leaves are 'Red Riding Hood'.  Neither these potted ones or the ones in the garden have grown stems this year and all are coming up with flower heads at soil level, going to full colour and just staying hunkered down in the leaves.

The 'normal' mixed colour tulips in the garden - about 40 bulbs planted 2 years ago which give a great display have disappeared.  Not a single one has come up.  I don't lift them - which is likely the problem.  Not sure.

It is the variety-they flower earlier than normal tulips around late February and are about 6 inches or so tall -nothing to worry about-these are mine -they have been in for a few year -picture taken 29th FEB

Drought is a possibility, although fancy tulips often don't last more than a year or two before disappearing.

This might explain why all the Queen of the Night & other tall tulips I planted last autumn are about half the height they should be. 

That article suggests the hot dry spell made them bloom before their stems had lengthened.