Tulip fire

What you see

Shoots emerge distorted and scorched-looking as though burnt, with small pale spots that spread. Flowers develop bleached spots and rot. Grey fuzzy mould appears in damp weather, and small black resting bodies form on affected bulbs.

Conditions

Cool, wet spring weather. It carries over on bulbs and in the soil, so it worsens every year tulips are replanted in the same ground.

Treatment

Remove affected shoots and flowers immediately, complete with the bulb where possible, and bin them. Do not compost.

Prevention

Inspect bulbs before planting and discard any with black specks or lesions. Rotate tulips onto fresh ground every year, plant deeply, and space generously.

Months: March, April, May

Plants

Tulip

Remedies

Bordeaux mixture (copper)

The thing people get wrong

Tulips are the one bulb that genuinely should not be replanted in the same soil year after year, and tulip fire is why. Each infected bulb leaves resting bodies in the ground, so a bed gets worse annually until nothing comes up cleanly. Treating tulips as an annual crop on rotating ground looks extravagant and is simply what the disease requires.