Tulips have faded, what to do next in the garden. Tulips have faded - what to do next? When to dig tulips, the optimal timing

It is impossible to imagine spring without tulips blooming in the front gardens with different flowers. For inexperienced gardeners, after the tulips have bloomed, the question arises of what to do next with it. Just forget until next spring or just dig it up? No, even after the end of their flowering, tulip care must be continued in order to form good bulbs for the next year.

Care for faded tulips occurs in the following stages:

Top dressing and enhanced watering

Immediately after the flowers wither, the peduncle should be removed, the tulips should be watered for another two weeks and must be fed, since it is during this period that the bulbs accumulate nutrients.

How to feed tulips after flowering:

  • phosphorus-potassium fertilizer with the calculation of 30-40g per 1 m2, for example, aquarine, solution, crystallin;
  • fertilizers with chlorine and nitrogen cannot be used.
Cutting leaves

Cutting tulip leaves after flowering is possible only when they completely turn yellow. If you do this earlier, then the bulbs will stop developing. Experienced gardeners, in order not to lose their location, recommend leaving a leaf with a mark.

To prevent yellowing tulip leaves from spoiling the view of your front garden, you can press them to the ground with something.

Digging the bulbs

After the leaves are completely dry after flowering, the tulip bulbs are dug out, approximately in late June - early July. You can find out if the bulbs are already ready by carefully digging one of them, the presence of formed roots and brown spots on the scales will indicate its readiness, or if the ends of the stem and leaves of a tulip can be easily wound around a finger.

Basic rules for digging out bulbs:

  • it is better to dig out on a sunny day to dry immediately;
  • if in damp weather, then immediately rinse with water and dry;
  • in order not to injure the roots, the shovel must be lowered deeper into the ground;
  • process with a 5% solution of potassium permanganate;
  • select and dispose of diseased and non-germinated bulbs;
  • it is better to dig up by varieties, starting with the earliest.

There is no unequivocal opinion about the need for annual digging of tulips; there are recommendations to do this every two years and even after a longer interval. But to keep the flowers large, beautiful and disease resistant, it is best to dig up the bulbs every year.

Storing the bulbs
  1. The dug out bulbs are sorted by grade and laid out in 1-2 layers in boxes with a mesh bottom so that they do not rot.
  2. 3-4 weeks (in July) are dried at a temperature of 23-25 ​​° C with good ventilation at a humidity of up to 70%.
  3. Then the temperatures of the content are reduced: in August - to 20 ° С, and in September - to 17 ° С.

In how to store tulips after flowering, it is very important to observe this temperature regime, since it is at this time that the most important processes take place: bud formation, laying of leaves, flower stalk.

Throughout the entire storage period, the bulbs should be examined to identify cases with their subsequent destruction.

Transplanting tulips

At the end of September, choosing good weather (it is considered optimal at 5-7 ° C), the remaining tulip bulbs are planted again in the soil, soaking them once again in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. It is better to choose a new place for planting, since at the previous place of residence the soil is depleted and the number of pathogenic bacteria increases. After planting tulips in the prepared area to a depth equal to five times the size of the bulb itself, they must be watered abundantly. A little later, feed with ash, and with the onset of cold weather with a thin layer of peat or humus.

Following these steps in post-flowering tulip care and replanting it to a new location will keep you blooming in spring!

Experienced flower growers know that caring for a flower does not end with the receipt of the desired bud, on the contrary - after that the most difficult part begins! Today we will talk about what tulips are after flowering, and how to take care of these rather whimsical plants.
We will find out whether it is worth replanting them every year, or if you can limit yourself to digging them out in 2-3 years, and also find out why this operation is worth doing at all.

So, at the end of spring and at the very beginning of summer, charming tulips delighted us with their flowering, which lasted for a relatively short time: from 2 to 3 weeks. What to do after that? Wait for the complete withering away of not only the peduncles, but also the yellowing of the leaves, or start digging right now, when the petals have just flown around?

Tulips after flowering, what to do

In nature, these flowers grow in the mountains or steppes, where the climate is sharply continental and inhospitable: cold in winter, very hot in summer. Of course, tulips that have undergone multi-stage selection differ from their wild relatives, but the general principles remain the same.

Digging tulips after flowering is worthwhile in order to control the growing and flowering process.

The fact is that the mother plant, that is, a large bulb from the first planting, will go deeper and deeper into the soil every year to make room for children. Not all of them will take root due to diseases and pests and, of course, will not grow in the order in which we would like.

But besides the aesthetic side, there is another, practical one.

If the climate in which we are going to grow flowers is mild and warm, there is no need to dig them out every year after flowering, the bulbs will do well anyway.

You can perform this operation every 2-3 years as needed.

Long periods of warm weather will allow the plant to form a flower bud in the bulb.

  • When we are faced with capricious varieties that require special conditions and special treatments, with which we always want to "keep our finger on the pulse", to know if everything is in order with the bulbs, whether there is rotting or insects, we must make an annual digging out.
    After that, we sort out the "harvest", remove the damaged or diseased specimens, and let the rest warm up in dry ventilated boxes or boxes until September-October.
  • A transplant may also be necessary due to the multiplication factor. If new young onions appear very actively and begin to press each other, it is required at least to thin them out.
  • But if we are going to plant tulips in harsh climatic conditions, it is better to plant the bulbs again in the spring so that they survive the winter indoors at + 20C.

This measure is only valid for the northern regions, and residents of the middle lane should definitely leave tulip bulbs without digging out, in the ground. It is under the influence of low temperatures in the onion in the soil that the elements of the flower are formed.

Do not forget about simple, unpretentious, early and time-tested varieties such as Oxford or Apeldoorn. They may not need to be dug out at all, as they bloom well and winter in average weather conditions. They do not reproduce too actively and, accordingly, do not go underground to a great depth.

So, whether it is necessary to dig up tulips after flowering, we have already figured out, and now we will find out how best to do it and when.

When to replant tulips after flowering

Falling petals should be a signal that flowers should be taken up. Most often, this is mid-June. It is during this period that it is worth taking care of the faded plant.

Firstly, it looks unattractive and spoils the look of the garden, and secondly, the ripening seed pod will pull all the forces of the plant over itself, because of which the bulb will begin to weaken. We want the opposite effect.

Important! If our task is not to decorate our garden, but to breed strong and healthy bulbs, we cut the stem together with the bud even before the latter blooms. This will allow the plant to direct all its forces to the formation and growth of the onion. Be sure to leave some of the leaves for successful photosynthesis.

As soon as the leaves begin to turn yellow, we cut off not only the remains of the flower, but also the stems, remove the ground part of the plant, and then dig out the bulb as well. It is not worth waiting for the leaves to dry completely and naturally die off, because of this we can simply skip some of the nests and leave them in the ground.

Accordingly, we do not water the tulips after flowering, but immediately dig up the bulbs. For this, an ordinary shovel is best suited, the main thing is to immerse it deeper in the soil so as not to damage the plants.

We sort the resulting "harvest" by varieties, sort out and dry. Sore or damaged areas can be cut off, washed in a solution of potassium permanganate and sprinkled with ash or activated carbon.

After that, we leave the bulbs in a well-ventilated room with an average temperature of - 20C without access to direct sunlight.

In the early days, damp nests can be kept on paper or on a special trellised tray, then, when they dry out, we disassemble them into separate bulbs, remove all unnecessary - the remnants of roots, scales and rinse in a solution of potassium permanganate entirely. This will help avoid rot and pests.

Dry again and transfer to boxes with holes. In no case do we put it in a resealable dish - there our tulips will start to deteriorate.

It is necessary to keep the material for future planting until autumn. The period from mid-September to mid-October is considered optimal for disembarkation. Then we plant the bulbs to a depth of about 15 cm in loose soil and leave to winter.

Now you know what to do with tulips after flowering: dig up or not, handle the bulbs and cut the stems. As you can see, there is nothing difficult in caring for this plant, the main thing is to follow general recommendations and especially listen specifically to those that relate to the cultivated variety.

After the end of the flowering period, tulip care does not end. The process of forming bulbs and accumulating nutrients at this time is just beginning and will continue for several more weeks. Therefore, you cannot immediately get rid of the remaining foliage and dig up the tulip bulbs. To obtain high-quality seed material, it is important to water the faded plants in a timely manner and apply top dressing.

Required actions after flowering

They do not stop caring for tulips even after their flowering is over. Otherwise, the flower bulb will stop developing. For the correct formation of bulbs, caring for tulips after flowering is as follows:

  • To get large bulbs of the variety you like, the tulip heads are cut a week after blooming, before the flowers begin to crumble. This will allow the bulbs to build up intensively.
  • Watering is not stopped until the plant is trimmed.
  • Fallen petals are immediately removed so that they do not accumulate in the axils of the leaves and do not rot.
  • Do not prune the foliage until it turns yellow completely, so that the development of the bulb does not stop.
  • To control ripening, dig out one onion and examine it for the presence of formed roots and brown spots on the scales.
  • In order not to injure the roots when digging out 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 get moisture in the deep layers of the soil, so watering must be deep.

Pruning

After flowering is complete, only those plants that have completely withered and turned yellow can be cut off. In most cases, after the end of feeding, the flower independently drops the peduncle, leaves and arrow. But some varieties need extra pruning when growing.

The flower stalk and foliage of the plant are responsible for the accumulation of nutrients and ensuring the correct formation of the bulbs. After the end of flowering, the necessary chemical processes continue to go on in these organs of the flower. Therefore, premature cutting of the remaining aerial part of the tulip can cause the death of the bulb.

Pruning can be carried out 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, the foliage is not pruned in large quantities.

Fertilization

To obtain high-quality seed material, it is necessary that the soil is enriched with such useful substances as 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, feeding should be done not only during the growing season, but also after flowering. To do this, potash-phosphorus fertilizers are applied, having previously diluted them in a bucket of water for irrigation. The concentration should be 2 tbsp. l. on a bucket of water.

How do you dig up and store the bulbs?

Tulip bulbs must be dug up every year without leaving them in the ground for the winter. This will improve the quality of the seed and prevent infection with infectious diseases. The bulbs should be dug up after pruning in late June or early July. At the same time, the early varieties of tulips are first dug up and only then the later ones.


To dry out the bulbs faster, they are removed in sunny, dry weather. After digging, the resulting material is carefully examined. Well-developed bulbs should have healthy roots and brown scales. The injured and sick must be thrown away immediately. Then the selected specimens are dipped for several minutes in a 5% solution of potassium permanganate and dried.

Before planting in the open field for storage, the bulbs are transferred to boxes with a mesh bottom so that the air can circulate better. Seed material is placed in two layers. 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 on a flower bed, it should be +17 degrees.

When storing bulbs, do not allow sudden changes in temperature, this can lead to the appearance of "blind" buds.

How to plant tulips?

The optimal time to plant tulips begins in the fall in mid-September. Then the plant will have time to take root and in the spring, already in March, it will start to grow. But it's better to navigate by weather conditions. The air temperature at this time should be from +5 to +7 degrees. In the northern regions, this period may shift to early September, and in the south, tulips are planted only in early October.

Before planting, the seed is peeled and examined to find possible foci of the disease. The damaged copies are discarded. If expensive tulip varieties turn out to be sick, then the damaged places are carefully cut out with a sharp knife, grabbing a small piece of healthy tissue together with the diseased tissue. Then the cut out places are dried for 20 minutes and treated with a fungicide. When planting, these bulbs are planted separately from healthy ones.

The prepared material for sowing is again treated with a 5% solution of potassium permanganate and planted in a well-lit and draft-protected place in the country or in the garden. The site should be different from the former habitat of tulips. For planting large bulbs, furrows are made 15 cm deep; for children, the depth of the furrow should be 6 cm. A distance of 30 cm is observed between adjacent rows of tulips. Wood ash and sand are added to each furrow, which will make the soil lighter. After that, the soil is watered so that it envelops the seed better. The bulbs are placed in the furrow, keeping a distance of 10 to 15 cm between them, depending on the size of the specimen. The planted plants need to be watered again for them to take root better.

It is necessary to complete the process of planting tulips at such a time 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 tulip planting site must be covered with a layer of humus or peat.

The flowering of tulips is ending, the petals are flying around and more recently such an elegant flower bed loses its attractiveness. What to do with tulips after they have faded? How to care for them after flowering? Do I need to dig them out? What to do with dug up tulip bulbs? When can they be planted again? You see how many questions arise about caring for such an unpretentious flower. We will try to tell you in detail and give step-by-step instructions on what to do next after the tulips have faded.

Fertilizing and watering tulips

As soon as the tulips have faded, all peduncles are cut off, leaving one or two leaves on the plant. Tulips are watered for another two weeks. After flowering, tulips must be fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers: "Crystallin", "Aquarin" or other similar fertilizers that do not contain nitrogen and chlorine.

Digging tulip bulbs

It is recommended to dig up tulips annually, after 2/3 of the leaf plate turns yellow (but you can dig it out less often: once every 2-4 years). At this time, the bulb was almost ready for hibernation, but the nest itself had not yet disintegrated. This time usually coincides with the end of the school year: late May - early June. The dug tulip bulbs should have brownish scales already formed.

The dug out tulip bulbs, together with the remnants of the leaves, are put into boxes and sent to a well-ventilated, dark room, sorted by varieties. After a week or two, when the earth and scales dry out, the bulbs are easily separated from both the ground and the foliage. The peeled bulbs are sorted out, the sick are discarded, treated with a 5% manganese solution, put back in a separate container and sent for storage.

Storing tulip bulbs

  • Tulip bulbs are sorted by variety
  • Placed in boxes with a mesh bottom no more than 2-3 layers
  • The first 3-4 weeks are kept at a temperature of + 23 + 25 ° С in a dark ventilated room
  • Then the temperature is lowered to + 20 ° С, and 1 week before planting to + 17 ° С

During the storage period of the bulbs, you not only store them, but give it a good rest and form a bud, peduncle and leaves.

Planting tulips

In September, it is time to plant tulips. Before planting, the bulbs are soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or in any fungicide preparation for 1 hour.

  • It is better to choose a new place for planting tulips so that the bulbs do not become infected with diseases, the spores of which could remain in the previous bed.
  • Planting depth of tulips should be equal to the height of 3 bulbs.
  • After planting, tulips are well watered with plain water.
  • A week later, a bed with planted tulip bulbs is spilled with a solution of ammonium nitrate and ash (1 tablespoon of saltpeter and 1 glass of ash in a bucket of water).
  • Before the onset of cold weather, a flower bed with tulips can be mulched with a layer of peat or any mulch.

In early spring, tulip sprouts will begin to appear from the still almost frozen ground, so that in a month they will bloom in large bright flowers.

ARTICLES

Do I need to dig up tulip bulbs?

There are many different opinions on how often tulip bulbs should be dug - annually, every two years, or at longer intervals. Practice shows that without annual digging, the reproduction rate decreases, the bulbs become smaller, the area of ​​plant nutrition decreases, the risk of disease and pest damage to the bulbs increases, the soil is depleted, and pathogens accumulate in it.

Therefore, it is advisable to dig up tulips annually! It is permissible to grow only small bulbs or group plantings as a biennial culture.

Tulip catalog http://vse-rastet.ru/catalog/120/?SHOWALL_1=1

When to dig up?
In central Russia, the time for digging is late June-early July. Signs by which you can determine the time - yellowing of the leaves. If the upper leaves turn yellow, and the lower ones are yellow-green, then you can dig it out.
There is one way to determine when to dig: if the end of the tulip stem can be easily wrapped around your finger, the bulbs can be scooped up.

It is important to harvest the bulbs in a timely manner. If the bulbs are dug too early, they do not have time to ripen, the integumentary scales have not yet formed on them, as a result, the bulbs are poorly stored, the likelihood of mechanical damage and disease of the bulbs increases. In addition, early excavation negatively affects the reproductive rate and decorative qualities of tulips in the following year. Delay in digging is also undesirable, since it leads to the loss of a significant amount of planting material - tulip leaves dry out and disappear, as a result, the search for bulbs is significantly complicated. In addition, overripe nests of bulbs are scattered in the ground, and small bulbs are not dug out, and some of the bulbs are damaged by a shovel and subsequently serve as a hotbed for the spread of diseases.

The dug out bulbs are scattered into boxes or other containers in a thin layer, so that they are well ventilated. For one to two days, the boxes with the bulbs are kept outdoors in a SHADED place. Dried bulbs are cleaned of old scales, remnants of roots, and earth. Unbreakable nests are divided into bulbs. If the bulbs were excavated in damp weather, they are usually washed from dirt in running water, and then laid out in boxes in one layer and dried. After digging, it is advisable to pickle the onions in a 0.5% solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes. Many growers believe that such a double pickling of bulbs in a solution of potassium permanganate (after digging and before planting) not only protects the bulbs from diseases and pests, but also practically satisfies the plant's need for manganese.

Digging sequence by classification:
1 - Kaufman tulips; 2 - Foster; 3 - Darwin's hybrids; 4 - Triumph class; 5 - Greig; 6 - Darwin's; 7 - class Cottage and Parrots.

If you do not know which group your tulips belong to, focus on the yellowing of the leaves.

They start digging tulips from a small child, and the larger the analysis of the bulbs, the later they need to be dug out, taking into account the degree of drying of the leaves.

Varieties that are not resistant to fungal diseases (some parrot and fringed varieties) are dug out at the beginning of the yellowing of the leaves.

When digging up tulips, do not place your shovel or pitchfork at an angle to the stem. In this position, you can accidentally cut the onion. In the photo there is a hazel grouse bulb pierced with a pitchfork. A shovel would have cut it in half. Stick the spade bayonet almost vertically, trying to pry on the onion as deep as possible. This is especially important for plants that were not dug up last year. Do not pull on the stem, it will come off and you will not find the bulb.