Tulips... 1 May 2020 at 8:58AM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 4 replies 131 views

han_nah95_2

Hi 
I planted my first ever lot of tulips which look amazing!! Slightly proud of myself haha
They didnt last very long and now the petals have all dropped off.
Is there anything i can do next time round to make them last longer? 
Do i need to dig them up or will they grow back again? 
Not very green fingered here so please help  

Grenage

Alas, they are short-lived beauties.  No need to dig them up unless you wish to divide a clump, but they're worth dead-heading once they start looking grim.

I'm lazy, I don't dig up my cannas, dahlias, or gladioli.  As the great Dolph Lundgren once said - If they die, they die.

DiggerUK

We grow our tulips in pots, give them a good feed to start off, then another good feed when they're about to flower. We dry and pot up again September/October. The first year they look a bit under par we 'dump' them somewhere in the beds, by the second growth they are fully reinvigorated. A lot of them revert to their original form but still look good.

Grenage, we keep a couple of dahlias in pots and overwinter in the  greenhouse. Then if any of the dahlias left in the beds don't reappear, plant them out..._

Grenage

DiggerUK said:

We grow our tulips in pots, give them a good feed to start off, then another good feed when they're about to flower. We dry and pot up again September/October. The first year they look a bit under par we 'dump' them somewhere in the beds, by the second growth they are fully reinvigorated. A lot of them revert to their original form but still look good.

Grenage, we keep a couple of dahlias in pots and overwinter in the  greenhouse. Then if any of the dahlias left in the beds don't reappear, plant them out..._

That's a good idea; I'd struggle to know what failed to appear out the front; I have a very.... organic gardening habit.  If I recognise the leaves as something I don't want, I'll pull it out.

twopenny

For tulips I now grow them in pots as they didn't do well or overwinter in the flower bed.

The pots go under the garden bench until the foliage has died down. Pretty much a routein as Digger said.