What to Do After Your Spring Bulbs Have Blossomed – To Get Great Blooms Next Year!

I love bulbous perennials – they are the real protagonists of spring! Their blooms come so quickly and so early, and they really announce the new season. Crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils and the tulips keep our gardens alight with their amazing, colorful blossoms in such amazing shapes. But they don’t last long. They spend most of the year “asleep” (dormant) underground, storing energy in the bulbs to sprout and flower again next year. So, what you do once their floral display is key to having them back again and again.

In fact, you need to “send your bulbous perennials to sleep” in the right way – plump them up, make them strong and, sometimes, also protect them.

But what exactly do you need to do after your bulbs have blossomed, so that their flowers spark up your spring days next year as well? Not much, really, but you need to get it right…

1. Deadhead Spent Flowers After Your Bulbs Have Bloomed

The very first thing to do is to deadhead the spent flowers. If you don’t, they will go to seed, and here you have two problems… To start with, your bulbous perennials have a limited amount of energy, and you know what plants do when they go into the reproductive phase; they focus their efforts on it. This means that they won’t fatten the bulbs.

Next, it is long and laborious to reproduce bulbous perennials by seed; you’d better wait till the bulbs divide underground; that’s a much faster way of propagating them!

But how can you deadhead bulbous perennials?

• For soft stemmed bulbs, like daffodils, tulips, hyacinths etc., pinch just below the flower head as soon as it has wilted.
• For hard stemmed bulbs, like fritillaria, lilies etc. especially if they have leaves on the flower stem, use a sharp blade and cut just above the first set of leaves.

Finally, don’t waste any time. Deadheading spent flowers also keeps your garden fresh-looking and tidy.

There are some exceptions though; you can leave the spent flowers on to bulbs that are naturalizing in your garden, like snowdrops, bluebells, muscari (or grape hyacinths) and scilla (or squill). It’s up to you!

2. Don’t Touch the Leaves after Bulbous Perennials Have Flowered!

While the spent flowers will “steal” energy from the bulbs, the leaves will give it to them! To remove the foliage after the blooms have gone is a very big mistake indeed!

You can only remove the leaves once they have yellowed; at that stage, they have done their job and fattened up the bulb underground – your bulbous perennial is truly going into dormancy. This usually takes 4 to 6 weeks from blooming.

I often see leaves of bulbous perennials (especially daffodils) tied up after they have bloomed. Amateurs do it to keep their gardens looking tidy, but it’s another mistake. It reduces the sunlight they receive, so they can’t photosynthesize as well as they should, and the bulbs won’t fatten much.

Next…

3. Fertilize Your Bulbs as Soon as The Blooms Are Spent

Of course, you can give your plants a helping hand to fatten up their underground bulbs after they have flowered. You can imagine how much energy they have used to give you those amazing blossomed! That’s why you should fertilize them as soon as their floral display is over.

However, you must give them the right nutrients at this stage: they need low nitrogen (they are not growing new leaves) and lots of phosphorus and potassium.

Use a slow release, granular fertilizer with NPK 5-10-10, alternatively…

You can always use compost, naturally, but I suggest you add:

• Boone meal (NPK 3-15-0), super rich in phosphorus.
• Wood ash (NPK 0-1-3),rich in potassium and minerals, but only use a thin dusting or it can make your soil alkaline.
• Banana peel fertilizer (NPK 0-3-42), a real “potassium bomb” to fatten bulbs. Just make your own; don’t waste money…

Use a combination of two or three of these with your compost, and you will get very big bulbs for next year.

4. Mark the Location of the bulbous Perennials You Will Uproot

We will soon see which bulbs you can leave in the ground, and which you should uproot after the leaves have wilted, but how can you find the latter later on? For this reason, simply use plant markers, so you can retrieve them without digging up all your garden.

If you plant them in groups, this job will be much easier.

Of course, you don’t need to mark bulbous perennials that are naturalizing in your garden, and those that you will leave in the ground. However, you should also do it with dense clumps that you intend to divide.

5. Water as Necessary – Your Bulbs Are Still Thirsty!

Of course, your bulbs need water as well as nutrients. It’s easy to think that they have done their job and they are not “thirsty” anymore. Irrigate bulbous perennials as usual, keeping the soil humid but not waterlogged, as you would when they are in bloom.

6. Loosen Up the Soil – This Will Allow Your Bulbs to Fatten More Freely…

I like to scatter 1 inch of coarse gardening sand (2.5 cm) all around my bulbous perennials before they finish flowering. If you haven’t done it, do it now. It will make the soil better drained (and this will prevent them from rotting), but also lighter.

This way, the underground bulbs will find it easy to fatten up. Using coarse gardening sand is especially useful if your soil is compacted.

In case you are growing your bulbous perennials in heavy clay, use gypsum instead of sand, and add organic matter (compost).

In case you haven’t mulched your bulbous perennials now (big mistake), do it now!

7. Uproot Vulnerable Bulbs and Clumps You Wish to Divide

There are many bulbs you can leave in the soil, in both winter and summer, like daffodils, squills, muscari, snowdrops etc. However, other spring blooming varieties risk catching diseases if you leave them underground (e.g. hyacinths), others (like tulips) suffer in hot conditions, and you should uproot them and store them in a safe place.

Here are some spring flowering bulbous varieties you should uproot after they have flowered:

• Tulip (Tulipa spp.)
• Hyacinths (Hyacinthus spp.)
• Ranunculus (ranunculus asiaticus)
• Freesia (Freesia spp.)
• Orange ornithogalum (Ornithogalum dubium)
• Corn lily (Ixia spp.)
• Tender fritillaria varieties (like Fritillaria persica, F. aurea, F. hermonis ssp. Amana, F. raddeana)

This is for all climate regions (with few exceptions) but how about if you live in a cold country?

8. Store the Uprooted Bulbs in a Safe Place

After you have dug up your bulbs, you will need to store them away in a safe place with the right conditions, so:

• Dry the bulbs in a ventilated place for 12 to 48 hours.
• Place the bulbs in a box or paper bag; don’t seal as they need to breathe.
• Place a handful of saw dust in the bags, it will keep them dry.
• Label the bags or boxes, or write the bulb variety on them.
• Store in a dark, well ventilated, dry and cool place, ideally at temperatures between 35° and 50°F (2.0° to 10°C).
• Check them regularly.

And that’s all.

9. Uproot Clumps That Have Become Overcrowded

Some bulbous varieties form dense clumps, and they will reduce flowering, because the bulbs have no space to grow underground. So, you will have to divide them.

• Use a fork.
• Dig 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) away from the clump (less for very small bulbs).
• Lift the clump.
• Divide the bulbs by hand, gently.

Bulbous perennials that tend to form dense clumps are:

• Hyacinths (Hyacinthus orientalis)
• Daffodils (Narcissus) (Narcissus spp.)
• Crocuses (Crocus spp.)
• Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis)
• Grape Hyacinths (Muscari spp.)
• Scilla (Siberian Squill) (Scilla siberica)
• Alliums (Allium spp.)

Finally…

10. Propagate Your Bulbs after They Have Bloomed and You Have Uprooted Them

Whether you have uprooted your spring flowering bulbs for safety, or because they had formed dense clumps, you can now propagate them. This is the safest, easiest way to get more plants, and they will be exactly the same as the originals – unlike with seeds.

Yes, because they are “twin sisters” and you will find that if you have fed your bulbs well after flowering, even “non clumping varieties” like tulips will have grown small bulbs to the side of the main one. So, what can you do with them?

First of all, divide them carefully and dry them.

If the “baby bulbs” are big enough, you can plant them in your garden when you plant the others. This usually happens with stronger and faster growing varieties, like daffodils, irises, scilla and muscari.

However, if they are small, you should grow them in a nursery for at least one year. This happens with tulips, hyacinths and other varieties. Put them in very fertile, well drained soil and keep them indoors. They will only produce leaves; they will not bloom for at least 12 months. But when they get big enough, you will have more flowers in your garden!

Big and Healthy Spring Bulbs after Flowering Means Lots of Flowers Next Year!

That’s literally all you need to do after your spring bulbs have flowered. Just follow these simple instructions and you won’t damage them or waste them – on the contrary, you will fatten them and even get many more plants to bloom in your garden next year!