spring bulb questions

[grawrc]

I stayed at home today to tidy my overgrown wilderness of a garden and realised the place is full of crocus, tulip, hyacinth and daffodil/narcissus which have already flowered and are now just rather untidy green things.

Now I have two questions:

1. Do you lift your bulbs when they have finished flowering and is there any advantage in doing so?
2. If you don't, do you cut back the straggly bits or tie them up until they die back naturally?

And of course the follow up question to both is why?

[grawrc]

[saddad]

Leave them to die back as the foiliage feeds the bulb so you get a good strong display next year.
Once they have died back you can lift them... if you want.

[grawrc]

Thanks Saddad. Is there any advantage in lifting them?

[valmarg]

I tend to leave them in the ground.  If you lift them you have to be careful not to let them dry out too much, and you have to remember where you put them in order to plant them out in the Autumn. ;D

valmarg

[Tee Gee]

I never lift mine  and this is what I get each year;




My secret is how I planted them in the first place.

If you look at the next picture you will see that they are planted in groups about a foot apart.



This means that when I cut them down at the end of may I can plant my bedding in between the clumps without interfering with the bulbs and end up with something like this;

[grannyjanny]

What about bluebell leaves. My daughter has lots of bluebells & was saying yesterday what a mess they look. Are they like daffs, feed them & cut them back 6weeeks after flowering.
Janet.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They'd probably be OK, though I never cut back any bulb leaf. Bluebells are indestructible anyway.

[honeybee]

Its clever how you do it Tee Gee, I have often wondered when you have showed those pics before how you plant up for the rest of the year and now I know, planned spaces  ;)

I had a great show of tulips this year that I planted in ceramic pots, I am just waiting for them to die back and then thinking of maybe putting a bay tree in the middle of each pot or something similar so that they will be able to be placed either side of the front door and look attractive all year around.

[Lindsay]

Thanks for asking this question - I thought it was something that everyone else knew but I didn't - and didn't dare ask!   

I will follow Tee Gee's example in future - what an example! If my garden looked only 10% as good as his, I'd be thrilled!   ;D