daffodils/tulips

scotty1971

what do you do when your tulips and daffodils have stopped flowering,do you just lift the bulbs and cut the greenery away,or do you let the greenery die off first before lifting the bulbs?

4thfrog

let the greenery die off or there's a risk they may not flower next year.

nodwah

Don't bend them over and tie with elastic bands!!!!

teachergirl

I agree with 4thfrog. Essentially those green leaves are gathering up energy and sending it down to the bulbs.These will produce the flowers next year. Some gardeners fold the leaves over and tie them if you want to make them look neater. It won't be that long before they turn yellowy.When this happens I cut mine off. and I haven't had any problems. In future if you grow other plants around the daffs and the tulips you won't notice the dead bits so much.

teachergirl

Oops and I forgot to say you don't have to lift daffodil and tulip bulbs.Leave them in the ground.

scotty1971

i want to lift them because they are in a planter,where i want to plant annuals

teachergirl

O.K.then I think it might be O.K. to lift them with the leaves on and then leave them to dry out before cutting the foilage off ,if you can't afford to wait for another few weeks. I have actually done this in the past and it has worked O.K. but maybe not as good as it could. Or is there somewhere out of sight in the garden where you could put the bulbs temporarily in the ground until the foilage dies off.That way you could have the best of both worlds.

olly300

scotty1971 wrote: »

i want to lift them because they are in a planter,where i want to plant annuals

Depends on the size of the planter.

I have 2 planters that are on soil in the garden - I inherited them - and I just sow annuals amongst the daffodil and tulip bulbs. So by the time the foliage looks horrible the annuals kind of hide them.