Tulip delivery in Beijing: Dutch groups, the short Beijing spring and caring for a "living" stem
Spring in Beijing is short, and all the more longed for: snow was lying just days ago, and already in Zhongshan Park by the Forbidden City the tulip beds come into bloom, drawing crowds to take photos. A cut tulip brings that feeling home. A bright armful on the table reads as a promise of warmth after a long dry winter. The capital has no fields of its own, but Dutch imports and the Yunnan crop keep the tulip available through most of the cold season.
This category covers single-variety bouquets, kraft-wrapped armfuls, boxed compositions and mixed builds with hyacinths, ranunculus and eucalyptus. Tulips work at any budget: a modest bunch of nine to eleven stems looks no less striking than a monumental armful of 51 — it all comes down to variety and presentation.
Groups and varieties in the catalogue
More than 3,000 tulip varieties are on the world register. The working shelf holds 35–45 of them, sorted by bud shape, stem length and flowering character.
- Triumph — the classic cupped bud, 40–50 cm stem. The largest group. Varieties: Strong Gold (yellow), Negrita (purple), Ile de France (red), Purple Prince (deep purple).
- Darwin Hybrid — large-headed, bud up to 12 cm across. Apeldoorn (scarlet), Ivory Floradale (cream). For big armfuls and accent bouquets.
- French Tulips — long-stemmed premium tulips up to 70 cm. Maureen (white), Menton (soft peach). For weddings and high-end floristry.
- Parrot — fringed petals with a "torn" texture. Rococo (red), Blue Parrot (blue-violet). For signature, dramatic compositions.
- Double / Peony — double "peony-form" tulips. Mount Tacoma (white), Foxtrot (pink), Angelique (pastel pink). An alternative to peonies out of season.
- Queen of Night — an almost-black deep purple. For signature work and striking contrasts.
Season and the main occasions
The tulip's natural season is April–May. Through forced greenhouse growing the Dutch run flowering from October to June, and that covers the main Beijing occasions of the cold half-year. The red tulip is in demand for the Spring Festival as a symbol of luck, while the main surge falls on the romantic dates: 20 May ("520" sounds like "I love you"), 14 February and Mother's Day. Align your order five to seven days ahead for these.
Beijing's cool season — from late autumn to spring — is a delight for the tulip: it is its natural element, and the winter chill only extends the bouquet. Humid July heat, on the other hand, it bears poorly, so in summer it gives way to flowers more tolerant of warmth.
A tulip's quirk: it keeps growing
A cut tulip is a living plant. In the vase the stem grows another two to three centimetres in the first days, and the bouquet changes shape day by day: by the end of the first week the tulips "lean" toward the light — that is normal and lovely, not a fault. To keep an even form, use a tall narrow vase that holds the stems upright.
A fresh tulip is easy to spot: a firm cool stem, a tightly closed coloured bud, leaves without yellow patches. If the stem is warm and soft, the lot is already at its final stage. Every delivery of ours is no more than four days from cut.
"The tulip in Beijing is about spring, of which we have so little. In winter, by the way, it feels wonderful — the cold only does it good. The main thing is that the bouquet doesn't freeze on the way: in frost we carry it in an insulated box. And at home — cold water, a cool room, away from the radiator. Then your tulip will last a week."
— Wang Li, florist, Beijing (Haidian), 10 years in the trade
Freshness and logistics
Tulips are brought into Beijing: Dutch lots fly into Capital (PEK) and Daxing (PKX) airports, while part of the crop comes from Yunnan through the Dounan market near Kunming (斗南). We carry tulips in hydro-boxes, stems in water at +6 to +8 °C until delivery. In winter we use insulated packaging so the cold doesn't harm the bud. A recipient in Chaoyang or Haidian gets the full flowering cycle of five to seven days with proper care.
Delivery specifics in Beijing
Beijing's climate is sharply continental: hot humid summers at +30 to +35 °C and dry cold winters with night frosts down to −10 °C. The tulip loves cool, so its best season here runs from late autumn to spring. In summer bouquets travel in chilled hydro-boxes and we schedule delivery for morning or evening. The optimal time for tulips is November–April.
We deliver tulips across all districts of Beijing: Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai, Shijingshan, as well as Tongzhou, Shunyi, Changping and Daxing. Payment is in yuan (¥, CNY). Order ahead — three to seven days, and for 20 May, 14 February and Mother's Day, a week in advance.
Home care
The tulip needs a different approach from roses. The key rules: cold water only, +6 to +10 °C; re-cut with a straight blade (not angled) every two days; a minimal water level in the vase — 5 to 7 cm from the bottom. The tulip doesn't tolerate deep water: the stems rot.
Don't place tulips next to daffodils without preparation: daffodil sap speeds ageing by 30–40%. For a mixed bouquet, keep the daffodils apart for 24 hours, rinse the stems and only then add them to the shared vase. In winter keep tulips away from a hot radiator — the dry heat of the heating ages the bud. Overnight you can move the bouquet to the coolest room — that adds two or three days of life.
