Allotments 4 All

OK - we put in 100 new ones last year, & they've been fab.

So - correctly - what should we do with them when they are over? Like this. The ones we have left in the ground in previous years have all diappeared. = Tim

Tim

I would have thought dead head and allow the foliage to die down naturally.  Really surprised that all you left in the ground disappear!  Surely that's unusual?

Ours come up year after year -generally with nothing doing to them. It was that word 'correclty' that put me off :)

Jeremy

I leave the stem as well?  Not pretty!

We used  to have rows of the things when we grew for sale, but they all went. = Tim

I 've had the same bulbs for years also.I dead head then put a bit of compost roundand let them die back naturally.Squirrels ate 200 of my crocuses but dont seem to touch my tulips dont know why.

The old method of dealing with bedding tulips, was to dig them up and heel them in somewhere out of the way until the foliage had died down. Then, like gladioli, cut back to the bulb, but try not to damage the bulbs skin. Check for greenfly just in and around the neck, lightly dust with sulphur powder and store dark, dry and cool until November. Watch out for mice eating the stored bulbs and like any stored produce look at occasionally and remove any with signs of rot.

I was afraid so - must summon my under-gardener!! = Tim

The other thing you could try, is to plant them a few inches deeper than recommended, on a bed of horticultural grit. This will help to stop them rotting off, supposedly, particularly if your soil gets very claggy in the much wetter winters we have now due to global warming!

Ten x

- and his mate!! = Tim

fraid i yank mine out when they are over - garden much too tiny to leave until foliage is over. i have had luck just leaving them to dry out naturally then and replanting next year but i find that the tulips are never as good, even after leaving until foliage finishes. Now, they are so cheap (buy from a bulb wholesaler such as Peter Nyssen - the smallest amounts are 25's but at around £11 per 100, who cares) - i just replant every year - i like to have different colours too - this year, it was all hot oranges and rich purples (Queen of Sheba, Ballerina, Dillenberg, Abu Hassan, Purple Prince, Blue Aimable, Negrita, Marinette - fantastic). Last year, loads of China Pink, Mount Tacoma.
cheers, suzy

Agree about the price - we get ours from  J. Parker. = Tim

The most important thing about tulips is to make sure they have good drainage, I've sent my mum all sorts of varieties, some that aren't exported because they don't do well in wet soil, she planted them in her front garden which has a long slope and they come up better every year, especially the Black Parrot and Spring Greens......... I only sent her the spring greens because it's my favourite vegetable and you can't get it here.  Sigh!

My mum dead heads them that's all, of course the way they do it in the bulb fields is to cut the flower off before it reaches it's best, this makes the bulb stronger for the following year.