Give them two to four weeks to start their roots before watering. Your big opportunity to surprise yourself, your family, and your neighbors with the earliest tulips in the neighborhood rests in those listed as species tulips. After the species tulips get well started at blooming, come the Single Earlies and Double Earlies which are much better known. Then, in a rush of colors both delicate and rich, come those classed as Darwin, Lily-flowered, Cottage, Breeder, Late Double, and Parrot. These names refer to flower forms as well as colors, and border lines between the classes are often indefinite.
Settings are important.
Tulip bulbs are graded according to circumference. The largest four of about eight sizes are offered for sale to dealers. Allowances are made, of course, for varieties which are normally small. The biggest bulbs naturally produce the largest flowers. You will find over several years of experience with tulips that it is smartest to invest a few cents more and buy top size bulbs, This large, vitality-filled stock will give larger blooms three or four years in succession.