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Tulip question
Hi. I don't know that I ever intro here or not. H and I bought a house over the winter and I'm trying my hand at gardening. We have a city size lot. 50x 100 or something like that. We have a few small flower beds along the garage and fence, and an unsightly area of mulch where there was a swing set. Can't wait to get rid of it and plant some more grass. Anyway, I have a question and its probably pretty basic but I'm not sure...
I bought tulips this year and planted them. They had already bloomed and looked ok for 2 weeks. The flower has fallen off now and I want to trim them down as they look awful right now. Some of the leaves are red and others are brown. I'm in zone 6 and I know tulips are past their prime. Can I cut the leaves down to the bulb so they are no longer showing? TIA
Re: Tulip question
If you want them to come back, don't remove any foliage until is has all died back. The bulbs pull energy from the leaves, and removing the leaves before all the nutrients have been sucked out weakens the bulb and it may not survive.
And don't dig them up to divide or reposition until the fall. Tulips are finicky about being disturbed too soon.
If you are talking about cutting them back to the bulb, then you did not plant them deep enough. Bulbs should never be exposed or just below the surface. Bulbs should be planted 6 inches below ground level.
It sounds like you planted a tulip that came already green and possibly flowered. In my exprience, these don't do well in coming back when you plant them in the ground.
For future reference - plant bulbs - not a tulip plant - 6 inches deep in the fall, before the first hard frost. In Zone 5, that's as early as October and I've even planted them close to Thanksgiving. As long as the ground does not have a hard freeze yet, you can plant them. I like to put in a little bone meal when I plant. You can find this powder at any greenhouse.
They will come up in the spring.
When the flower dies back, and drops leaves, tug on the stem. If it pops out easily, it's ready and okay to pull. If it doesn't come out easily with a little pop, or it feels like you're pulling the bulb out of the ground - stop pulling and leave it until it is ready. Leave the rest until they are yellow or brown, then cut back to the ground.
They will come back again every year, but they will be less and less each year. I plant new bulbs every year to build my garden, as well as replace those that won't come back next year.
If you want to protect from rabbits in the spring, plant daffodils next to them and surround them a little. It won't save them all, but it helps keep them away. Rabbits and deer hate daffodils because it is a bitter tasting plant.