Tulips are very beautiful during flowering, but this period does not last long. Literally after a few days the flowers begin to fade and no longer look so attractive. Not all flower growers know how to care for tulips after flowering, and make annoying mistakes when trying to immediately cut or dig up the bulbs.
What to do after the tulips bloom
Caring for tulips after flowering is quite simple. The main rule is that flowers cannot be cut or dug up immediately. It is recommended to water and feed the plant well for several weeks. This feature is due to the fact that when the flower fades, tulip bulbs continue to accumulate nutrients. Premature digging deprives them of this opportunity, so next year Tulip blooms may be less abundant.
After final wilting, the peduncle is carefully removed. This will allow the plant not to waste energy on the need to ripen seeds. It is impossible to cut the leaves immediately, since when they are removed immediately after flowering, the development of the bulbs lags. It is necessary to provide tulips sufficient watering and fertilize with fertilizers.
Many gardeners at this time have a desire to remove yellow leaves, but you shouldn't do this. Experienced gardeners It is recommended to simply press them to the ground or plant perennial plants along with tulips to give the flowerbed an aesthetic appearance during this period. You can decorate your flower garden during this period by first planting daffodils or phlox along with tulips.
Within a few weeks, the tulip leaves will wither naturally and can be cut off. In order not to lose the place where the flowers are planted after the leaves dry, it is recommended to first make guide marks by which you can easily find it.
Do narcissists need a haircut?
Diverse in shape, flower size, color and also resistant to unfavorable conditions unpretentious daffodils inhabit many gardens near Moscow. The exuberant May flowering pleases summer residents, but what to do with the leaves after it ends? To cut or not?
We start from the nature of the plant. Root system narcissus - perennial. The roots live off the bulb, which grows from the inside and on which, in turn, children appear, giving life to a new plant. The more nutritional reserves the bulb retains, the more strength the plant will have for flowering next year. And this process of food accumulation is directly related to the leaves. While the leaves remain green (sometimes even until August), nutrients accumulate in the scales of the bulbs.
Hence the conclusion: you cannot cut off the leaves of daffodils immediately after flowering. For a better future, you will have to endure a not-so-nice present. Moreover, try to maintain soil moisture both during the formation of buds and during flowering, until the leaves wither.
To prevent drying leaves from spoiling the harmony of your flower garden, provide for this feature of bulbous plants when planting and combine daffodils with other perennials: daylilies, hostas, heucheras, astilbes and brunners, which, growing to summer season, will cover the withered foliage with their green “wings”.
There is an interesting and very effective design technique: slightly drooping daffodil leaves that have fallen to the sides are collected like hair in a bun and braided, which are then laid on the ground. And the beauty of the garden, and the benefit of the plant.
When to prune daffodils after flowering for wintering?
When the plants fade, they need to be fertilized. Choose fertilizer with a high percentage of phosphorus and potassium. Now you need to wait until the leaves are completely dry, then remove them and loosen the soil. There is an opinion that daffodils are unpretentious and do well without covering during the winter, but this is wrong. Plants especially need this if they were planted in the 2nd half of September. This is a late planting, because before the cold weather arrives, the flowers do not have time to fully adapt and may not survive in a frosty, snowless winter.
The varieties of daffodils with large flowers are the most vulnerable to frost. To protect them from freezing, cover the flowers with dry fallen leaves, peat, dry grass, wood ash or special mulching materials (for example, agrofibre). The soil needs to be mulched before frost hits. You can learn how to mulch the soil correctly from the article: “Rules for mulching the soil.” You can remove the mulch layer only in the spring, when there are no sudden temperature changes outside and no risk of frost.
To form stronger, developed bulbs, buds and flowers are cut off on many bulbous plants. Inflorescences of tulips, narcissus, and hyacinth are cut off immediately after flowering to prevent excessive depletion of plants.
In this case, 1-2 leaves are left on the tulip, and all leaves on the narcissus and hyacinth.
Hyacinth must be dug out of the soil every year; this is done manually when the leaves turn yellow.
Hyacinth bulbs are cleared of soil and placed in a row in boxes, leaving to pre-dry for 2-3 days under a canopy. Then they are cleaned of excess scales, roots, growths on the bottom, and the well-formed baby is separated.
Bulbs are stored at a temperature of 20+25 degrees paper bags, to maintain average humidity, they should be lightly sprayed with water or covered with a damp cloth.
Without transplantation, daffodils can grow in one place for 5 years, then it is advisable to replant them, as they grow strongly and form large nests of bulbs.
Daffodils are planted earlier than other bulbous plants from the end of August to the end of September!
The bulb planting depth is 15 cm (on loam). If the soils are heavy - 12 cm, on light soils - 17 cm.
The distance between daffodil bulbs is 10-12 cm. With such a dense planting, the bulbs turn out to be large; with sparse planting, many children grow.
On one dream, tulips can be grown for 3-4 years. It cannot be returned to its original place earlier than after 2-3 years.
Tulips are planted in September - October, planting depth is 12-15 cm, with a distance between bulbs of 18-20 cm.
Before the cold weather, peat or sawdust is added to the planted tulips in a layer of 5 cm, and in the spring the mulch is not removed, but loosened.
The bulbs are harvested after the leaves wither (late June - early July).
If possible, it is better to pick off flowers from faded tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths if you do not plan to remove new variety from seeds. Then the nutrients will completely enter the bulb and promote its growth and the formation of a new flower bud for the next year.
Not necessarily... they need to be cut off when they begin to bloom... the bulbs will have time to ripen before the end of summer.
It is enough not to leave the seed pods, and if you cut the flowers, then leave at least two leaves.
The main thing is not to cut off the leaves; they feed through them.
It is advisable to cut after 4-5 days of flowering. But you can simply tear off the seed pods.
Absolutely right. After flowering, nutrients flow from the leaves into the bulb. There is no need to cut off all the leaves.
I never cut them, as they correctly said, tear off the seed pods after flowering, and the bulb will gain strength from the leaves
It is known that tulips need care not only during the growing season. Giving them the right to lush flowering again is quite possible with proper care and following a few simple rules.
Depending on the variety, tulips begin to bloom from March to June. Flowering lasts from one week to three, then the plants begin to lose their appearance and gradually fade. However, this is not a reason to stop caring for them.
Do I need to trim tulips after flowering?
In order to maintain the size of the buds, it is necessary to trim the tulips after each flowering. This is due to the fact that during the growing season the plant forms a new young bulb (sometimes several bulbs) underground, inside which a shoot and a flower are initially born next year. For better ripening of the future bulb and preservation of all the nutrients it needs, you need to free the peduncle from the old bud.
Tulip refers to perennial plants: Its development from seed to flowering state takes three to seven years. And if you properly care for this plant, it will form lush buds every year.
When and how to prune tulips after flowering?
There are several subtleties to the process of pruning tulips after they have bloomed. You need to wait until the plant petals become dry and easily separate from the stem. Next, you need to first mark the location of the tulip bulbs in the soil, so that when digging them up it will be easier to find them.
The pruning tool must be disinfected with alcohol-containing wipes or liquid (you can also use potassium permanganate and inkstone) and wipe dry with a clean rag.
If you decide to take still blooming tulips from the flowerbed for a bouquet, then in this case the stems of the plants should not be cut, but carefully broken, leaving at least two bottom sheets: the flower will need them to restore its strength.
Do I need to water and fertilize tulips in the spring after they bloom?
After flowering ends, tulips need to continue to be watered for another two weeks.
Feed tulips in spring for lush flowering possible with fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But if the blooming tulips have not been fed, then after pruning them the soil must be fertilized with phosphorus and potassium, mixed in equal proportions at the rate of 30-35 g of mixture per sq.m.
It will not be superfluous mineral fertilizers, containing manganese, zinc and boron. You should not fertilize tulips with manure: it can cause the bulbs to rot. Chlorine is also contraindicated for these flowers.
When are tulip bulbs dug up?
As a rule, the time to remove tulip bulbs from the soil falls at the end of June - beginning of July, when these plants have already bloomed, but their underground shoots have not yet had time to “get lost.” In the northern regions, this time shifts to mid-July - early August.
You need to dig up tulip bulbs at the moment when approximately two-thirds of their leaves turn yellow. With more early cleaning the plant will not have time to form high-quality planting material, and a later one will lead to drying out and loss of the bulb.
After removing the bulbs from the soil, they must be checked for the presence of mold, rot, fusarium and other diseases.
The affected bulbs are thrown away, healthy ones are dried for two to three days under a canopy, protecting them from direct contact with sun rays. Well-dried tulip bulbs are divided into groups, depending on their diameter, cleaned of excess roots and scales and kept in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for at least half an hour. Planting material is ready for storage.
In order to preserve the tulip variety, gardeners advise digging up their bulbs annually. This is especially true for new plant species - terry, green-flowered, fringed, parrot. But simple early and simple late tulips, as well as tulips of Kaufman, Foster, Greig, Triumph and Darwin hybrids do not require “updating” for 3–6 years.
How to store tulip bulbs?
Tulip bulbs should be stored in a cool, dry place with good ventilation. With proper maintenance, they will feel great right up to autumn landing, which also has its own characteristics.
It is best to plant tulip bulbs in open ground from mid-September to mid-October.
Achieving beautiful and lush flowering of tulips is not at all difficult: give them attention and they will reciprocate your love.
After the flowering period ends, caring for tulips does not end. The process of bulb formation and accumulation of useful substances is just beginning at this time and will continue for several more weeks. Therefore, you cannot immediately get rid of the remaining foliage and dig up tulip bulbs. To obtain quality seed material It is important to water faded plants and fertilize them in a timely manner.
Necessary actions after flowering
They don’t stop caring for tulips even after their flowering has finished. Otherwise, the flower bulb will stop its development. For correct formation Bulb care for tulips after flowering is as follows:
- To get large bulbs of the variety you like, the heads of the tulips are cut off a week after blooming, before the flowers begin to fall off. This will allow the bulbs to intensively increase their mass.
- Watering does not stop until the plant is trimmed.
- Fallen petals are immediately removed so that they do not accumulate in the axils of the leaves and rot.
- Do not trim the foliage until it completely turns yellow so that the development of the bulb does not stop.
- To control ripening, dig up one bulb and examine it for the presence of formed roots and brown spots on the scales.
- In order not to injure the roots when digging up the bulbs, the shovel is driven to a sufficient depth.
When watering tulips, the soil must be moistened to a depth of at least 40 cm. The root system of the plant is unable to reach moisture in the deep layers of the soil, so watering must be deep.
Trimming
After flowering has completed, you can trim only those plants that have completely withered and turned yellow. In most cases, after finishing feeding, the flower independently sheds its peduncle, leaves and arrow. But some varieties require additional pruning during cultivation.
The peduncle and foliage of the plant are responsible for the accumulation of nutrients and ensuring the correct formation of the bulbs. After flowering ends, the necessary chemical processes continue to occur in these flower organs. Therefore, premature cutting of the remaining above-ground part of the tulip can cause the death of the bulb.
Pruning can be done no earlier than a month after the end of flowering. Since the development of each flower is strictly individual, the accumulation of nutrients and the ripening time of the bulbs will also be different. Therefore, mass pruning of foliage is not carried out.
Fertilizer application
To obtain high-quality seed material, it is necessary that the soil be enriched with such useful substances, like potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. With their deficiency, the development of the flower slows down: the stems grow thin, the flower forms small buds and an insufficient number of new bulbs. Therefore, tulips need regular feeding.
Since flower buds form throughout the summer, fertilizing should be done not only during the growing season, but also after flowering has completed. To do this, apply potassium-phosphorus fertilizers, having previously diluted them in a bucket of water for irrigation. The concentration should be 2 tbsp. l. on a bucket of water.
How to dig and store bulbs?
Tulip bulbs must be dug up every year and not left in the ground over the winter. This will improve the quality seed material and prevent infection with infectious diseases. Bulbs should be dug up after the plant has been pruned. last days June or early July. In this case, they first dig early varieties tulips and only then later ones.
To make the bulbs dry faster, they are removed in sunny, dry weather. After excavation, the resulting material is carefully inspected. Well-developed bulbs should have healthy roots and brown scales. Damaged and sick ones should be thrown away immediately. Then the selected specimens are dipped into a 5% solution of potassium permanganate for several minutes and dried.
Before boarding open ground For storage, the bulbs are placed in boxes with a mesh bottom to allow air to circulate better. The seed material is placed in two layers. The prepared boxes are placed in a dark, dry place with good ventilation. The air temperature in the first month in this room should be from +23 to +25 degrees. In the second month, the temperature is lowered to +20 degrees, and before planting in the flowerbed it should be +17 degrees.
When storing bulbs, sudden changes in temperature should not be allowed, as this can lead to the appearance of “blind” buds.
How to plant tulips?
The optimal time for planting tulips begins in the fall in mid-September. Then the plant will have time to take root and begin to grow in the spring in March. But it’s better to navigate weather conditions. The air temperature at this time should be from +5 to +7 degrees. In the northern regions, this date may shift to the beginning of September, and in the south, tulips are planted only at the beginning of October.
Before planting, the seed is cleared of husks and inspected to find possible foci of disease. Damaged copies are thrown away. If expensive varieties of tulips turn out to be sick, then the damaged areas are carefully cut out sharp knife, grabbing a small piece of healthy tissue along with the diseased tissue. Then the cut out areas are dried for 20 minutes and treated with a fungicide. When planting, such bulbs are planted separately from healthy ones.
The prepared material for sowing is once again treated with a 5% solution of potassium permanganate and planted in a well-lit place protected from drafts in the country house or garden. The site must be different from the previous habitat of tulips. For planting large bulbs, make furrows 15 cm deep; for children, the furrow depth should be 6 cm. A distance of 30 cm is maintained between adjacent rows of tulips. Add to each furrow wood ash and sand, which will make the soil lighter. After this, the soil is watered so that it better covers the seed. The bulbs are placed in a furrow, maintaining a distance between them of 10 to 15 cm, depending on the size of the specimen. Planted plants need to be watered again so that they take root better.
It is necessary to complete the process of planting tulips in such a time frame that the plants have time to take root before the onset of frost. Otherwise, they may die from the cold. With the onset of cold weather, the place where tulips are planted must be covered with a layer of humus or peat.
Blooming tulips is a celebration of spring. In order for the holiday to come every year, this bulbous plants will require special care.
Caring for tulips after flowering
When the tulip petals fade, it is necessary to pick off the flower so as not to waste energy on setting seeds. There is no need to trim the leaves; they participate in photosynthesis, providing nutrition. Now the main thing is to create conditions for the development of a young replacement bulb, because the old one dies after flowering.
It is better to break off rather than cut flowers with pruning shears. The latter method allows tulip diseases, such as the variegation virus, to be easily transmitted.
After flowering, only the flower head is cut off; the entire peduncle does not need to be removed
In order for the onion to be larger, after flowering the plants are fertilized with a choice of:
- daily infusion of ash;
- potassium magnesia;
- potassium nitrate.
Fertilizing is carried out on moist soil. At this and other stages of growth, fertilizing spring flowers with manure or high-nitrogen fertilizers is not recommended. This can cause the bulbs to rot.
Don't forget about soil moisture. While the leaves are green, it is necessary to water the plants generously once a week if the spring has been dry.
When watering tulips, you need to wet the soil to the depth of the roots: 35–40 cm
Digging up bulbs
To prevent the flowers from becoming smaller and the bulbs from getting sick and degenerating, all types of tulips are dug up every year. This is usually done at the end of June - beginning of July. The exception is tulip babies; they are dug up once every two years. Experienced flower growers advise:
- hold the event in dry weather;
- immerse the shovel deeper than you planted the bulb, as they grow deeper;
- destroy all diseased specimens;
- Treat the dug up planting material in a disinfectant solution.
Digging too early leads to underdevelopment of the bulb and children. In addition, the decorative effect of future flowers will be reduced. If you dig it up too late, when the shoots have dried out, there is a risk that the bulb will become infected with a fungus or the protective covering scale will crack. This can lead to damage to the planting material during storage.
If the leaves turn yellow or wilt, try wrapping the stem around your finger. If the shoot does not break and turns out to be plastic, dig up a control specimen. If the scales of the bulb turn light brown, the time to dig has come.
Do not immediately cut off the stems of dug tulips, let them dry out and the nutrients go to the bulb
I was once given a dozen peony tulip bulbs. The stunning double flowers bloomed for a long time thanks to the cool weather. But after the tops turned yellow, I forgot to dig them up. Next spring not a single one rose. Neighbors say that their rare new varieties degenerate and do not sprout if they are not dug up every year.
Signs that it’s time to dig up tulips - video
Drying and disinfection
The dug up tulips are laid out under a canopy in 2 layers for two days. After this time, the bulbous nests easily fall apart. The bulbs are cleaned of dead roots and husks and disinfected in a 0.5% solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour. The procedure will destroy rot pathogens and nourish the tulip with microelements. Then the bulbs are dried again, sorted by size and placed in open wooden boxes or baskets, preferably in one layer.
In order not to take out the bulbs one by one, it is convenient to disinfect them by placing them in a gauze bag
Storage
During summer storage, the bud and buds of future bulbs are finally formed. In order for the ripening process to occur correctly, they are first kept for a month at a temperature of about 25 o C in a well-ventilated room. Optimal humidity is 60–70%. In August the temperature is reduced to 20 o C, in September and further - to 15 o -17 o C. In case of non-compliance the listed rules tulips may not bloom or produce “blind” buds.
Planting material is periodically inspected and diseased or moldy ones are discarded. Most often, stored tulips are affected by gray rot and fusarium. At the first disease, the bulbs become covered gray coating and gradually rot. In the second case, they are formed brown spots with a brownish border, the bulbs exude bad smell and also decompose. If the lesion is small, the rot is cut off with a sharp knife, the onion is pickled as usual, then sprinkled with ash and dried.
Poorly dried and not disinfected bulbs are often affected by gray rot
Landing in the ground
Ideally, tulips are planted in the soil in the fall., at the end of September - beginning of November. Spring planting is also practiced, in April. But then the tulips will bloom much later, because they will need about three weeks to take root. It is advisable to change the planting location every year to prevent pathogens from accumulating in the soil.
Where spring flowers will grow, moisture should not stagnate. The future flowerbed is prepared 2 weeks in advance so that the soil settles evenly. The bed is dug up to the depth of a spade and compost, ash or superphosphate is added. Lime if necessary. On clay soils The addition of peat is encouraged. If there is no rain, the area is watered.
Before planting, the bulbs are sorted again and disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate. The planting depth of the bulb is three times its height. For large specimens, maintain a distance between bulbs of 15 cm, for medium ones - 10 cm, small ones - 5 cm. Leave 25–30 cm between rows.
Advanced flower growers plant tulips in special baskets for bulbs; they are very easy to dig up
You should not cover flower beds with organic matter so as not to attract rodents. When unexpected frosts occur, agrofibre is spread on the flowerbed and pressed down with boards.
By advice experienced florist When planting, I put a handful of sand mixed with ash in the hole. I place the onion on this “slide” and cover it with earth. Now the loss of tulips from various rots on my heavy loam is minimized. And the bulb comes out larger, due to the fact that the sand loosens the soil and the roots develop freely.
Feeding immediately after flowering, disinfection of bulbs and warm storage followed by lowering the temperature - these are the three pillars of the grandiose spring bloom tulips.