My purple tulips bloomed orange

[Mrs. Hermit]

I planted purple tulips 2 years ago. Last year they were a beautiful purple. This year when they bloomed, they were orange with yellow flame centers! And not just in one bed--every one that was purple last year in my yard is orange this year. The flowers nor the foliage are malformed, which indicates they haven't been infected with a virus. I've never heard of this before. What happened?

[iris lily]

We in the lily and iris societies get this question a lot. You won't like the answer we give because it seems patronizing, but essentially, at least for bulb plants like lilies and tulips, you are wrong. Sorry, this is just the standard answer.

While I myself have seen weird spring weather change a couple of flowers in a group to something that is clearly deformed or "off", it's not possible for bulbs to spontaneously change to another, completely different cultivar.

The usual explanation is that the bulbs you planted died out, and tiny bulbs over the past 2 -3 years that were mixed in with your purples are now in bloom.

I've been gardening for 30 years and have not seen the issue you describe. How long have you been growing tulips?

[CathyA]

Might it have something to do with the quality of the bulb to start with? (I mean the difference between buying a big bag of them at a store like Walmart, as opposed to buying them from a reputable flower producer).
I don't grow tulips. I planted a bunch of them one year when we first moved here, and all but one got eaten by mice.

[Mrs. Hermit]

I've been growing tulips in various places (we move frequently) for about 30 years. This is the first time I've had blooms do this without virus infections. I got to wondering if the squirrels dug up my old bulbs and planted our neighbor's bulbs in their place!

[Zoebird]

that would be hilarious, those busy squirrels. :D

[Mrs-M]

Mrs. Hermit. This is a new one on me! LOL! Maybe the squirrels you have really are up up to no good! But darn it all anyway, I love purple and blue flowers.

[jania]

While Iris lily's suggestion sounds logical to me I'm perplexed by the "purple" tulips changing into the same type of something different in every bed....must be some smart squirrel!

[Jemima]

The same thing happened to me. My solid color tulips of last year are now coming up in a white and color combo.

[Wildflower]

Well, I googled this because I remember this happening to my tulips that I had at my previous house many years ago, before I had a computer to research such things - 1980, I believe was the year. Anyway, this can and does happen with tulips. They can change color from year to year even without a virus present.... It's not the squirrels!! :)

[iris lily]

I looked around a little and found this:

http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/tag/gardening-tips/page/2/

article that has one brief sentence about tulips changing color. another web article, from a non-authoritative site, suggests color change s are associated with age of the bulb if it's not viral.

So--I learned something. But lilies don't change color! Same for iris.

[Mrs. Hermit]

Interesting article with good tips for fertilizing--Thanks Iris lily! (plus the site could draw me in for hours of reading...)

[CathinMadison]

My orange tulips bloomed orange for a couple of years, then came up yellow. All of them, in six or so different places. They bloomed yellow for a couple of years, then one year they all came up orange again! They've been orange ever since, for the last three or four years, the same brilliant, glowing orange as they originally were. Even the guy who mowed the lawn asked about it - "didn't those tulips used to be yellow?" It didn't surprise me when they came up yellow, because I was told a long time ago that yellow was an ancestral color that they reverted to for the rest of their lives. So it only surprised me when when they went back to orange again! However, what I was told was not correct - they come in all colors in the wild. But there's still no explanation for why they all went yellow for a few years.

http://www.highplainsgardening.com/tulips-wildflower-cut-flower-part-1-4-central-asia-and-turkey

[catherine]

At least you got tulips. My beautiful tulips were eaten by something before blooming--probably a rabbit. First time this ever happened. We got one little stunted red tulip and rest have been cut off at the stems.

[iris lily]

Tulips aren't worth planting, anyway. Go with Daffodils, they are far more reliable.

[rosarugosa]

I'm a big fan of the smaller bulbs like squill, snowdrops, glory of the snow, and muscari. Nobody seems to eat them, they don't fizzle out, they multiply, but not obnoxiously.

[Simplemind]

The same thing happened to me this year and I swore I was being pranked. My front yard is all purple, pink and white. This year about half of them came up yellow. It looked like an Easter basket out there. I was going to pull them out but after reading this maybe I will see what happens next year.