Interesting questions

I had a great question this morning (in a Botany for Gardeners segment that's part of a Home Gardening Fundamentals series). It elicited a 'oh, what a great question' response from me. She asked 'how are tulip bulbs grown, from seed, or from bulb offshoots'? Hmm, I didn't know, but I was determined to find out.

This was one of my top Google hits, more about global bulb production than tulips, per se, but still quite interesting. Here's another fascinating piece about tulips in the Netherlands.

It seems that commercial production of bulbs is largely a matter of planting the offshoots (in good soil, with plenty of fertilization), and growing them to good size (by cutting the flowers early) - but it was hard to find detailed information, at least in early layers of searching.

I love questions like this.

They make the familiar (tulip bulbs) unfamilar, a key to observation and learning.