Flowering bulbs don’t require a lot upkeep

“I purchased my dwelling final fall and was pleasantly shocked by a lot of flowering bulbs this spring and would love some recommendations on tips on how to greatest take care of them and select extra to plant this fall. Can I reduce the ugly foliage now?”

— Tracy Patterson, Morton Grove

Bulbs don’t require a lot upkeep. They are going to usually carry out greatest in a location that’s moist in spring and fall, and dry in summer season. Most bulbs is not going to carry out properly in beds which might be persistently moist or watered closely all through the summer season. An vital consideration for being profitable with bulbs, like different crops, is selecting ones which might be well-suited to the rising situations in your backyard.

Plant daffodils and decorative onions you probably have rabbits and deer looking in your backyard. Tulips and crocuses are routinely eaten by deer and rabbits, however you possibly can develop them by diligently spraying repellents in spring as they’re rising. I’ve additionally seen plantings of crocus dug up by squirrels and chipmunks this spring because the foliage was going dormant.

It’s tempting to chop again the bulb foliage earlier than it ought to be trimmed, because the climate warms and the foliage appears more and more worse. It’s best to attend till the bulb foliage has gone dormant earlier than chopping it again. The leaves will flip yellow to brown. As soon as the leaves have all turned yellow, it’s OK to chop them again. The bulbs want their leaves to photosynthesize and make meals that’s saved to provide foliage and flowers subsequent 12 months.

Chopping the foliage again too quickly can cut back the vigor of the bulbs and flowering the subsequent 12 months. Tying up the leaves, bending them over and braiding the leaves are usually not good practices both because it reduces the leaf floor for photosynthesis. In the event you plant bulbs within the garden, then you must maintain off on mowing the garden in these areas to present the bulbs time to go dormant. You’ll most likely want to chop the grass earlier than the bulbs are fully dormant so set the mower on the highest setting to avoid wasting as a lot of the bulb foliage as doable.

I usually don’t fertilize my bulbs, although they find yourself getting fertilized when the shrubs and perennials planted round them do. Phosphorus is usually beneficial for bulbs, however this nutrient doesn’t readily transfer via the soil, so floor functions of it should do little good for any of the crops in your backyard. Many backyard soils have already got sufficient ranges of phosphorus for crops to carry out properly. Check your soil if you wish to know for certain.

If a longtime patch of bulbs begins to bloom much less or begins blooming sparsely, the bulbs might have turn out to be overcrowded, or the planting website too shady as adjoining timber have grown. That’s the sign to dig and divide or transfer them to a different location.

Step one is to carry the bulbs from the bottom, being cautious to dig the bulbs and never pull them up by the foliage. Take care when digging that you just don’t injury the bulbs themselves. Begin digging a couple of inches away from the crops and wait till the bulbs are loosened up earlier than making an attempt to tug them up. The very best time to maneuver or divide bulbs is when the foliage has gone dormant, which means the leaves have completed producing meals for subsequent 12 months’s flowers and you may nonetheless see their location.

To divide bulbs, fastidiously pull the small bulbs from the bottom of the plant to extend plant numbers and gently separate them in order that they are often planted with extra spacing of their new location. The bigger the small offset bulbs are, the earlier they are going to flower. Verify the unique bulb for firmness. If it seems in good well being, go forward and replant it; you should still get a number of years of flowering. If it seems shriveled or broken, toss it.

For extra plant recommendation, contact the Plant Data Service on the Chicago Botanic Backyard at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture on the Chicago Botanic Backyard.