Posted on HJ last year about 4 rose bushes we'd been given for our anniversary.
Lots of good advice resulted in me pruning them. ( not a clue what I was doing. ) All 4 are looking really healthy this year after a winter in the snow. masses of healthy looking leaves. So, thanks all who advised. Or should I say ' Thanks a bunch ! '
Now, me Tulips. Really big healthy yellow and almost black flowers. SWMBO planted them in 2 tubs and protected the bulbs with grated coal-tar soap....the Squillos don't like it.
The yellows have dropped their flowers now but the blacks are still flowering. I've never seen Tulips this big, most of them are between 2 and 3 feet high.
So, what do I do with them when they're over. The pots will be planted up with something colourful, but what do I do with the tulips ?
Nice little tip in the paper, Next year, plant your daffodil bulbs in a hollowed out beetroot.....you'll get red daffs ! Must try it !
Come on Pat, lets be 'aving you !
Old Ted, the non-gardener.
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you can leave the bulbs where they are, or lift them out and keep them nice and dry so they dont go rotten and plant them again in the later autumn for another spring display.
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Well, since you want to replant the tub with something colourful for summer you need to remove the tulips.
Don't cut the leaves off though, let them die and drop off naturally. It gives time for the bulb to reclaim the 'goodness' from the leaves them and ensures a good show next year. Store them well away from mice and somewhere dry before planting them again next autumn.
Can I suggest a trip to the garden centre tomorrow for some plants and a coffee:)
Pat
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Of course you can Dearheart. But can you bring my coffee out to the car....I hate garden centres with all the tat they now sell.
We normally put bizzies and pansies in. Nor much good at anything else.
Zero...speaking of pansies............no, I won't go there ! :-)
Ted
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Now behave Z, you know I have a soft spot for you too:)
Pat
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It's called a swamp !
Ted
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>>
>> It's called a swamp !
>>
>> Ted
No they call that "the fens"
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>> you can leave the bulbs where they are, or lift them out and keep them
>> nice and dry so they dont go rotten and plant them again in the later
>> autumn for another spring display.
>>
You can indeed do these things but the display you will get next year will be vastly inferior to this years.
Best solution is to chuck them on the compost heap and buy new bulbs next year.
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My experience with bulbs is that leaving them in pots generally gives you a "blind" ( no flowers) the following year. Thereafter - never a great show.
If you replant them carefully in a spare corner and feed them you might get a display next year.
I have a super display of tulips every year. they have been undisturbed for many years and just get fed when I feed the lawn.
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A friend of mine grew daffs for export to Holland. He lived about five hundred foot up on the Welsh borders. He gave me some bulbs.
The biggest and earliest I've ever had for the first year. I don't think they survive the heat!
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I remember reading somewhere about some gentlemen who had been detained at Her Majesty's pleasure who were sent to plant daffodil bulbs on roadsides. They planted them so that when they grew they spelled rude words.
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Take off the dead heads so they don't produce seeds (a waste of energy for tulips). Then plant them out in the garden, give them a good dose of hoof & horn fertiliser and wait for them to flower next year.
If you do take them up and store them until the autumn, make sure do don't take them up until they have died back. It is important for them to put energy back down into the bulbs.
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Tulips. - Zero
