The vase life of cut tulips (Tulipa spp.) is limited by a combination of leaf yellowing, tepal senescence, and
tepal abscission. In many cultivars, moreover, high rates of stem elongation result in stem bending during
vase life. In tests with the cvs. Apeldoorn and Frappant, stem bending could be prevented by treatment
with ethylene or ethephon. However, these treatments resulted in poor flower opening. The ethephon
treatment also resulted in precocious tepal abscission. The negative effect of ethephon on flower opening
was overcome by a treatment with gibberellic acid (GA3).GA3 also somewhat delayed early leaf yellowing,
but did not prevent the early tepal abscission induced by ethephon. The latter problem was overcome by
a treatment with benzyladenine (BA). In addition, BA effectively delayed leaf yellowing and also delayed
tepal senescence. However, BA produced browning of the lower stem end. This was prevented by the
inclusion of calcium ions in the solution. The combination of chemicals (ethephon, GA3, BA, and calcium
ions) was similarly successful in a large number of other tulip cultivars tested. After adaptation of the
concentrations the four chemicals were also effective if given as a pulse treatment shortly after harvest.