Planting Tulip Bulbs

When we went to Amsterdam this past spring, Cathy and I ordered a package of 105 mixed tulip bulbs to split (note: I didn't think at the time how many tulips I'd be planting come fall...52 doesn't sound like many until you're digging 52 holes in the cold!). They were delivered to us at the end of October and of course I procrastinated a couple weeks before getting them in the ground! I thought about maybe planting them in some sort of pattern or shape but then realized I just needed to plant them already and hope for the best...knowing Cathy she has arranged them to make some cool pattern and I'll feel bad for not taking the time! But really, even tho 52 individual holes sounds like a lot it isn't really enough to make an actual tulip statement like they do in Amsterdam - check out this picture of tulips planted in a giant tulip shape:

yeah, I'm gonna need way more than 50 bulbs to do something like this!

Unless you live in a warm climate, tulips bulbs get planted in the fall so they're cold and in the ground all winter. It's nice to dig with a bulb planter (a hand-held cone-shaped tool that you stick in the ground and remove dirt creating a narrow deep hole) but I don't have one so I used my hand shovel to dig small (at least) 4" deep holes. Insert the bulb with the root side down and the pointy end up. Cover with dirt and say a little prayer that you haven't killed it because your thumbs aren't very green and move on to do the other 51 :)

this is how it should go into the ground, root end down and pointy end up

One thing I did try to plan for is how tall the different tulips will get. My initial thought was to put them all in a big bag and throw them on the ground in a random order - but then I realized that they will grow 24" tall all the way down to 8" tall, and I didn't want the little ones to get dwarfed by the tall ones. So I staggered them with tall in the back, graduating down to short in the front. 

I laid them out according to height but didn't do them all in rows, so it won't look too "planned" 

 Wish me (and my tulips) luck! I'll show you pictures in the spring - can't wait to see them and have a super cool souvenir from our fun Holland trip :)