Why should you not pierce Tulipa stems?

What is piercing?

When discussing care & handling of Tulipa this question always arises. But what is it?

It is pinching a hole in the Tulipa stem just under the bloom, with a needle or (safety) pin.

True or myth?

Little research has been done on this Tulipa piercing topic.Sometimes there was an effect on bending, and piercing the stem was brought forward as being responsible for the reductionof this effect, but never consistently.

So, why piercing?

One reason to pierce could be the formation of callus tissue on the cutting surface, which promotes stiffness of the stem and reduces the elongation of the stem.

A second reason behind piercing stems is to get rid of the socalled air bubbles in the stem. This might be a problem whenTulipa are put on tap water only. In general we advise not to pierce the Tulipa stems. The risk of rotting outweighs the benefits.
Stem piercing, believe it
or not, no effect observed.

What should you do?

  • Buy Tulipa that have been pretreated with Chrysal BVB. This treatment will make sure that the elongation is reduced enormously
  • Buy Tulipa that already show colour. Green Tulipa will have difficulties to develop into nice flowers in the vase
  • Always (re-)cut the stems before putting the flowers in the vase
  • Leave the Tulipa in the sleeve and put them in a vase/bucket with water in a dark spot for a couple of hours
  • Use Chrysal specialty cut flower food for Tulipa or Chrysal bulb food. This food will also reduce the browning of the leaf tips
  • Using a cut flower food, particularly the Chrysal specialities for bulbous flowers or Tulipa cut flower food, will solve water uptake problems.

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