Interesting questions
I had a great question this morning (in a Botany for Gardeners segment that's part of a Home Gardening Fundamentals series). It elicited a 'oh, what a great question' response from me. She asked 'how are tulip bulbs grown, from seed, or from bulb offshoots'? Hmm, I didn't know, but I was determined to find out. This was one of my top Google hits , more about global bulb production than tulips, per se, but still quite interesting. Here's another fascinating piece about tulips in the Netherlands . It seems that commercial production of bulbs is largely a matter of planting the offshoots (in good soil, with plenty of fertilization), and growing them to good size (by cutting the flowers early) - but it was hard to find detailed information, at least in early layers of searching. I love questions like this. They make the familiar (tulip bulbs) unfamilar, a key to observation and learning.