Bulbs: When does spring bulb folliage die?, 1 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
valdavid, I wish I knew. Those were planted more than 20 years ago and, as all my garden journals started in 1983 were lost when we had water damage from a burst pipe in 2000, I have no idea. Help from anyone would be loved.

I just add bulbs around the base of any existing perennials and I plant new perennials over existing bulbs by digging down carefully and tucking the new kid in with the old bulbs or by moving the bulbs to one side in the hole. Narcissus and perennial tulips should be planted 8" deep so that gives you a fair amount of space above them to plant small new perennials, except large clumps or shrubs. I am sure I have lost some bulbs to DL's, but not so many that I have noticed. The clumps of day lilies may at some point become too thick for the bulbs, but it is amazing how bulbs find a way to come up near by.

As for moving. Several ways. The first being to wait for about six weeks after the bulb has bloomed and the leaves have yellowed, then dig the bulbs and then transplant them immediately or secondly, you can then dry and clean the dug bulbs and then store them in mesh bags in a cool dark place to be replanted next fall or thirdly, do as I have done plenty of times and move them in full bloom.

I have done this with Narcissus as well as hyacinth when the color was all wrong. I planted some pink ones in an orange spot. Not pretty. Tulips are more difficult as they tend to break, more easily. But I move those too, if I have goofed and planted them in the wrong place. I waited for the hyacinth to finish before moving the 10 screamingly bad ones. We lost one. Be careful when handling the hyacinth as some people get a rash from them, like me. They are big and easy to move, just plant them deep. After moving don't cut any of the foliage off any of these until it has completely yellowed on its own. But do cut off the flowers as soon as possible. I cut the flowers off before I move them if I can bare to do it. The foliage will help feed the bulb while the flower if allowed to go to seed will take strength away from the it. I deadhead all my Narcissus as soon as they finish blooming. It keeps them tidy looking and helps them for next year.

So to move them while in bloom, first just dig a big hole where you want them to go, then go and dig up the clump to be moved as deep as you can, so as not to cut the bulbs. Dump it in the new hole, tamp down and water well. Do the next clump. I do it on a cool, cloudy day. They will be back next year almost as if nothing has happened.


We have a big narcissus festival in Nantucket each spring and to decorate my bookstore window for those two days I would dig up clumps of fully blooming daffodils from our garden, and pot them up to place in the window display and they would stay in that window over the weekend before being returned to the garden on Monday. They wilted a tad sooner upon returning home, but next year they were as good as ever. I have never moved a crocus on purpose. They should be everywhere! Good luck. Patti