Season's Greetings to all! I hope this month's edition of our Tulip Tidbits newsletter finds everyone warm for the winter, in good health, and fortunate enough to soon be spending time with friends and family for the holidays. Here in the Pacific Northwest the weather has been rather chilly yet pleasantly dry, which has given us a nice break from the rains in late November. On the farm, most of our activity is taking place in the greenhouses and warehouse as we pick red and white flowers for shipment and plant bulbs for our greenhouse sets later in the spring. Throughout the greenhouses a sea of red and white tulips exhibits the influence of Christmas; a scene created by the reds of Ile de France, Rococo (a parrot tulip), and Largo (a double tulip), and complimented by the purity of White Dream. Asiatic and Oriental lilies add to our holiday selection and our Dutch irises offer an exception to the seasonal colors. As I mentioned, we are not only picking flowers during this time but also planting bulbs for our flower sets planned for May - sets that will have a much greater range of varieties and spring colors.

Only a couple of weeks remain until we enter into a brand new calendar year and the last days of 2011 mark the end of another season: the last chance to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs. Most gardeners wisely worked their garden soil and tucked their bulbs safely into the earth weeks or even months ago, but each December we hear from an anxious few who have yet to do so. And if you are one of those who has not yet done so? I strongly recommend that you plant your bulbs as soon as possible! Flower bulbs are on a biological clock and they need to be planted into the earth sooner rather than later, so please avoid putting things off until that next weekend, that next sunny day, or that next time you might have the extra help around the house to plant your bulbs for you! December may not be the best month for planting our Fall Planting bulbs (unless you live in a hot climate zone), however, planting your bulbs late is better than not at all.

Should anyone still be looking to order bulbs for this season, my advice would be to act quickly. December 22nd will be the last day to place an order online, and after this date we will no longer have any bulbs to ship until the fall of 2012. Should you take a pass on blooms in your flower beds for next spring, you can still plan to enjoy our 2012 bulb catalog - the first edition of which will ship in March. Catalogs will be mailed to all of our current customers plus those requesting one via our mailing list.

Wishing you all the best in 2012!

Leo Roozen

The holidays will soon be upon us, and we would like to remind you that flowers can bring color and elegance to any celebration. As always, we happen to have tons of them on hand, and pre-orders are welcome for your holiday event. Delayed shipping is also available, so you can order now and have your flowers delivered exactly when you need them. No matter what delivery date you choose, your flowers will be picked fresh and delivered to your doorstep in less than 24 hours! With their amazing freshness and unsurpassed quality, our flowers will make sure to have everyone smiling during the Holidays.

Speaking of blooming flowers, our current greenhouse tulip and lily sets are filled with red and white colors, or a combination of the two, while our irises are available in both blue and white. We are heavy on the holiday colors through Christmas, but we also offer a uniquely suited selection for this particular month. Our December tulip sets include a Parrot tulip variety called Rococo. This beautiful and distinctively seasonal tulip displays a deep red colored bloom infused with subtle streaks of green - an ideal match for the holidays! One final note on fresh-cut flowers: our website currently reflects limited color availability for the month of December, but anyone looking to order flowers for a January or later occasion may contact us at (866) 488-5477 to inquire about future colors and dates.

In addition to holiday flowers delivered fresh to your doorstep, we also offer great holiday gift ideas, including gift certificates and our Bloom of the Month club. If it has to do with flowers and the holidays, we have got you covered. And one final gift note: planting bulbs in containers makes for a great DIY gift... but hurry up and order bulbs if this sounds like the gift for you to give - time is running out!

We will soon unveil a new look and feel to our Tulips.com website.  The updated site will offer an enhanced user experience for our customers plus a significantly improved online shopping experience.  We will also continue to add product photos from our display garden and greenhouses and update the quality of these photos so that our gardening friends and fresh cut flower customers can get a real life view of the products they wish to order.  Please stay tuned.

Q: I have not planted my bulbs yet... should I wait and plant them next year?

NOOO! Stop reading this newsletter and go plant them right now. Seriously! You should already be moving out the door! Bulbs want to grow into flowers and for them to do so they must be planted - preferably in a timely fashion. As time passes, bulbs will begin to lose significant amounts of moisture. Some varieties succumb to dehydration before others. Whatever the variety, one of two things will eventually occur if you have not already gone out and planted your bulbs: 1) they will shrivel and begin to resemble a raisin of a bulb (note: please do not eat), or 2) they will rot. A blooming flower is vastly preferred to either of the listed outcomes. PLEASE plant your bulbs so you can enjoy them this spring! If you live in an area that is already receiving nighttime low temperatures below freezing, then wait until the afternoon to plant. Even if the surface layer of your flower bed feels frozen, the soil beneath should be workable. Get those bulbs tucked into the earth before the winter!

Q: My muscari (or other) bulbs are sprouting from the earth... do I need to add mulch or cover?

Your muscari bulbs are and will be fine left as is! It is neither harmful nor uncommon for muscari (and most other spring flowering bulbs) to begin poking from the ground at this time of year. If you live in a slightly warmer climate you may find your bulbs have grown a decent amount of foliage by this point. And if you live in a cool zone your bulbs may have started to heave from the ground or be in their early growth stages. Throughout our display garden a few bulb varieties have already begun to bulge the earth in their attempt to sprout, but this is expected. The growth of these plants is determined by a biological clock and the surrounding climate - the latter of which has been mostly average for November and early December here in the Pacific Northwest. Regarding tulips and daffodils, foliage showing at this point it is most likely what will become the tips of the plant's leaves. Therefore, any damage sustained as the result of extremely cold weather would be rather minor - perhaps some browning to the tips of the leaves, and for this to happen, it would take the arrival of rather extreme weather conditions. Daffodils may be further along, but they are a very resilient flower and difficult to damage in any climate.

We receive many similar questions during this time of year (and even more once the bulbs begin to grow a little more), but generally speaking, the answer is simple: adding a medium to cover any sprouting flowers is unnecessary, so only add mulch if you truly desire. If your bulbs have significant growth at this time then you most likely live in an area that is not affected by extreme winter temperatures - as determined by the bulbs. Your bulbs have a good idea of what they are doing... sit back and enjoy their growth until their lively spring blooms!

	Rococo red parrot tulips picked from the greenhouse.
	A cool winter's night in the RoozenGaarde display garden.
	A new addition to RoozenGaarde... to be completed by the spring!
	The RoozenGaarde windmill at night.
	Ile de France tulips growing in the greenhouse.