Tulip bulbs - plant BEFORE or AFTER the first frost?

[AntiqueBooks]

Hello

I'm seeing conflicting info re this.

After the first frost to minimise Tulip Fire or before the first frost to give them enough time to put roots down before the hard part of winter?

Where do you stand on this debate?!

Thanks

(Decided to post pics even tho none are fully out!)

Current status

Chucked the dead crocus bulbs because I can see it will be a lot of work to remove all the dead foliage once it dies back, just for the small chance they come back again next year. Also crocuses are a bit too small imho to look terribly effective in pots and I don't want them in my borders because of the aforementioned dead foliage I'd have to clear.

I chucked out all my potted crocus too. I feel less guilty now. Life's too short etc

Hmmm, so my vision of 5 pots of tulips all out at the same time is so far not really materialising… I planted 10 bulbs of each colour. The orange ones are doing really well, all 10 are coming up and look happy. Only 4 of the purple ones have been successful. And I’m still waiting on most of the dark purple ones and both colours of the pink ones. Ah well! It’s fun seeing what happens anyway.

Tulips slightly past their best although the storm damage didn't help. Again, have just chucked them rather than trying to get a 2nd year out of them as i realised there would be a lot of tough foliage for me to cut back and I cba.

Definitely daffodils for the win - they are still going strong and should hopefully be easy to cut back the dying foliage and see if I can get a 2nd year out of them.

@theministerscat just extends the joy, surely?

Still early for "main crop" tulips where I am. The early red ones are out now though.

My lates in the beds were out before my earlies this year. And before all my pots. This is very unusual.

The daffs I potted up myself have just started to go on the slight turn now. So have put them to the back of the house to die back and we shall see if they come back next year. Will be a bit of foliage to hack back but nowhere near as bad as with the crocuses or tulips (which I cba with so went in the brown bin!)

I was at Dobbies and picked up some reduced-price ready-potted grape hyacinths which were on the turn. I didn't have any of these this year (only decided recently that I wanted them). I'll see if they come back next year. And will aim to pot my own this autumn. I like how they look like lavender. And I think the blue goes well with the yellow of the daffodils.

I repotted my dying-off snowdrops into 1 big container and we shall see if they come back next year.

So that's my Grand Plan for Bulbs going forwards:
Concentrate on planting my own daffodil bulbs. Max impact for least effort.
And possibly grape hyacinth.

Snowdrops and iris at a pinch.
Tulips maybe at some point again if I cba eg there's particular colours I want.

Lazy me strikes again! Decided I cba with the dying tulips taking up space and looking ugly and then having to cut back and see if they return next year. Have chucked in the brown bin which gets taken away Thurs AM. Also chucked the ready-potted grape hyacinth and will aim to plant my own this autumn.

So they only things I've kept to see if they come back next year are the snowdrops and the ready-potted iris.

Going forward I'm going to plant the correct-height daffs and just a couple of varieties each in their own pot. A more modest display. And will see if I can get them to come back the following year. This year's were too big and tall, falling over etc so not worth keeping.

Will just be buying whatever is the "go-to" in Tesco and B&Q. I like the traditional size and shape. Not keen on pouffy, mini or multi-stem varieties, I have discovered from just buying all sorts last year!

I saved my tulips and daffs from last year and at the time thought it a faff but was glad I did as most of them have come back through.

Thought they might have rotted in all the wet weather so glad they didn’t.

@Maggiethecat good for you! I will be doing that once I've got the varieties and pot set-up I like. This year was just Year Zero tho, the year of experimentation. Got a very full brown bin going out which attests to all my recent mistakes!!

No mistakes in gardening, just learning experience!

I mean to say it was the DAFFS I chucked today! Chucked the tulips over a week ago!

So basically I'm going to start again this autumn except for snowdrops and iris which I have retained from this year.

I'll excuse you throwing away tulip bulbs but rescue the daffodils from the bin NOW!
Even if you don't like them in pots, find a quiet corner of your garden to plant them in - nice and deep.
Unlike fickle tulips they won't be eaten by squirrels and WILL come back next year - brightening up your Spring.
If you really don't like them - offer them for free on Gumtree.

My tulips, orange ones are in there somewhere but lagging a bit.

They don’t last as long as daffs which do heavy lifting in endurance and brightening up the place but the tulips do make me happy the short time they’re around.

My tulips are still going strong. I planted lots of different ones this year but will also probably focus on a few favourites for next year. I don't ever bother digging anything up, if they come back - great!

These are gorgeous! What's the pale pink one please?

I planted tulip bulbs as soon after they arrived as I could last autumn, and they have been spectacular. One or two failed to come up (rot? Sammy Squirrel?), and one variety - looks like a species of some sort - was a mystery as I had it down as Iris reticulata so I don't know what happened there... but the others have been amazing.

I've decided that I prefer the more elegant and simple ones, but I've been quite smitten by a double yellow one called Monte Carlo. Stands up well to the wind despite the size of the flower, and a really jolly, striking colour.

It's called mariage - lovely aren't they?!