Bulbs for beginners...

[NotPennysBoat]

Back in the autumn I planted my first ever bulbs in my first ever garden! I planted a mixture of tulips, crocuses and daffodils (dwarf and normal) in various spots around the garden - some in beds and some in pots. Now that Spring has arrived they have had varying success, and I am after some advice on what to do with them once they start dying off please!

Crocuses - pretty much a total flop! Leaves came up but hardly any actually had flowers and the ones that did grew tall and fell over! Is this due to naff bulbs (from local garden centre) or something else? Can I help them perform better next year? Do I need to dig these up now or can I leave them?

Daffs - did reasonably well, all flowered and are now starting to fade. I have read that I need to wait for them to die right back before cutting, but do I cut the heads off now? Do I need to dig them up later?

Tulips - great success and looked gorgeous! Again starting to die off now, when do I dig up?

Thanks in advance :)

I would leave the crocuses another year. Most of mine take a couple of years to start clumping up and looking great. Give them a bit of fertilizer to help them gain some pounds!

As you know, the leaves on most spring bulbs - inc crocuses, daffs, die back in late spring/early summer. The bulb is still happy underground, ready to spring up next year. You need to go round and deadhead the daffs (cut off the bulbous bit that sat behind the flowers) as if you don't the plant will get distracted into making seed. You don't want seed, because there is a much better way of getting more daffs, which is to force them to put all their energy back into the bulb and to multiply underground. Similarly, don't cut the leaves back: as they fade, the plant is taking up the energy they provided into the bulb. If you deadhead it and leave the leaves you may find you get two bulbs next year where you only had one. (You can pull the leaves out by hand when they are completely brown, they will actually come away very easily).

Tulips are a different story. Ideally, you should deadhead them and wait for the foliage to go yellow, then lift them, put them somewhere to dry, and store them somewhere dark and airy for planting again in the autumn. I don't know anyone who actually does this, though. Most people leave them in the ground perhaps with a mulch on top over winter and they gradually fade in their strength until you need to get new ones. Species tulips, however, are happy to stay in the ground and will come back year after year.

It is worth putting little labels to tell you where clumps are buried, because if you are anything like me you will forget and put a fork through them otherwise!