Tulip Akebono

Tulip Akebono – is a double form of a ‘Darwin Hybrid’ tulip, which gives it an extraordinary large head and sweet scent. Akebono means “dawn” in Japanese, which explains the gorgeous canary yellow, edged in red with a green vein in the outer petals. A growing glow of red comes through the body of the petal as it matures.

Flowering in the spring, tulip bulbs grow well in borders, rock gardens and containers providing colour from early March through to mid-May.

How are Double Tulips different to Single Tulips?

Single tulips usually only have six petals, whereas double tulips produce rows of petals, resulting in large, ruffled blooms that are often compared to peonies. Double tulips are very showy and long lasting, often blooming into the early summer. They are often scented too.

Planting Double Tulip bulbs

Tulip bulbs will be shipped to you from the middle of September once we have received them at our warehouse. The optimum time to plant tulips is in Autumn, but you can plant as late as January.

Tulip bulbs start with a good source of moisture and nutrients stored within the bulb, so you don’t need to prepare them. To get the best results, plant them when the soil has cooled down from October to December. The cold, moist soil will activate the growth of the roots before winter.

Tulip bulbs can be planted in a sunny position or semi-shade, with well-drained slightly acidic or neutral soil. The sun will make the tulip flowers open very wide, but they close again overnight.

When planting Double Tulip bulbs, you will need to give them a little more space than singles and make sure they are sheltered from the wind to avoid damage as they are a bit more top heavy. Plant Tulip Akebono bulbs 15cm deep in well-draining soil, and around 10cm apart. Tulip bulbs produce a lot of roots that don’t like to sit in water, but make sure they don’t dry out. If planting in pots, make sure they have good drainage and lots of room. Pots can dry out quite quickly so a loam soil is often best.

How do I store tulip bulbs?

Once your Tulips have bloomed you can deadhead the flowers but do not remove the leaves. These will ensure the bulbs are able to gather and store the energy needed to bloom again the following year.

Tulip bulbs can be kept in the ground all year round, but you may find that they don’t put on as much of a display as the previous year.

Once the foliage has yellowed and died back, it can be removed, then carefully dig the tulip bulbs up. Clean the soil off and let the bulbs dry. Discard any damaged ones. Store tulip bulbs in nets or paper bags, but make sure you label them. Keep in a cool dark place ready to replant in the Autumn.