Break a Bulb Rule Today
April 3rd, 2006 
by Susan Harris
Remember last week I showed you some plants with one lone pink tulip popping up from last year’s design? Well, it looks like they’re back in droves, or drifts to be more accurate, and they’re not supposed to do this. That’s because I removed all of the foliage as soon as the flowers gave out, which everybody in the hort world will tell you to never do, warning that if the foliage isn’t left to slowly dry up, you won’t have blooms the next year. My mental retort to these warnings is that there’s no way I’d let such hideous foliage dominate the front of that border for the next two months. Not a chance.
So to all the experts of the world, so much more knowledgeable than dirty-handed gardeners like us, I present last year’s foliage-deprived ‘Pink Impression’ tulips, which classify as Darwins if I’m not mistaken.
And to complete my 1-2 punch in the face of conventional wisdom, I’ll tell you I don’t let my daffodil foliage flop over, either. You know, we’re warned to not even tie the foliage in a knot in some desperate attempt to hide the long and ugly process of dying. But when my daff foliage starts to flop, meaning on top of the groundcover - uh-uh, not gonna let that happen. I tie bunches of them up with twist ‘ems. They then stand nicely at attention until they’re weak enough to lift. The daffs have been going strong now for 15 or so years, spreading and blooming their hearts out.
I probably enjoy doing this too much and have unresolved issues with authority figures.
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April 3rd, 2006 at 10:27 pm
I hear ya Susan! I do the same thing.
April 4th, 2006 at 1:00 am
HA! I love it when plants disobey orders!
April 4th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Did you fertilize that bed? I sprinlly Osmocote on my bulb beds (at that point the perennials and shrubs are coming in fully) and the tulips all come back consistently no matter what the foliage status.
April 5th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I’ve been wondering about the daffodil foliage. I also tie them loosely with raffia, allowing the foliage to flop over the tie like a miniature haystack, or some ornamental grass. As far as I can see the foliage gets as much sunlight as it did before I tied it, and I don’t tie it so tightly as to make the leaves die. Was that the problem with tying them with knots that the prohibition was meant to correct? Can’t tell if it works, because my record with daffodils is pretty uneven.
How I envy your tulips. Even the species one that grow here not needing a chill period open and wither in a day…it’s been close to 90 this week. Down here, tulips are one flower that it is cheaper to buy as a cut flower if I really want a reliable source of them. And they never come back, of course.
April 6th, 2006 at 1:28 am
I don’t have to worry about taking leaves off or not, my bulbs don’t come back ….ever. They get eaten by critters. I have been getting better at putting some bulbs in pots & then sinking them in the ground……..but gads, that is work!!! I’m basically, a lazy gardener!
April 16th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Worth a try!