About that Bulb Foliage…
May 4th, 2020
You’re probably tempted about now to cut down the now-bloomless daffodils, hyacinths, and other spring bulbs in your yard that have finished their show for the year.
Forget about braiding bulb foliage, left, but removing the bloomed-out flower stalks is fine.
Don’t.
Also don’t twist them, braid them, or otherwise mess with the foliage. These few weeks are the most important of the year for your bulbous health (or at least the flowering part of it).
Those leaves – plain green though they are – are now taking in sunlight to fuel the chlorophyll-charged photosynthesis process, which stores energy in the underground bulbs to grow next year’s flowers.
By cutting the leaves early, you short-circuit the recharge and weaken future flower shows – possibly to the point where you get no flowers at all. It’s one of the leading answers to the question, “Why didn’t my bulbs bloom this year?”
I understand why gardeners are often in a hurry to get rid of bulb foliage.
It can detract from the plants coming up around them, and the leaves often splay apart, flop, or start to discolor.
That’s why someone years ago invented the practice of twisting the foliage and tying or rubber-banding it into little green straitjackets. The idea, I think, is to make the foliage look neater until it’s time to cut it down.
No. 1, this seems like a lot of tedious, unnecessary work to me.
And No. 2, it’s counter-productive to the plants. Bundling the leaves cuts down so much of the leafy surface area exposed to the sunlight that it’s barely any better than getting rid of the leaves altogether.
Resist the urge. Your bulbs will thank you if you let the foliage “ripen” the whole way until it browns and collapses. Then you can just rake it up – if you want.
Can’t keep your hands off it that long? Then at least wait until the foliage begins to yellow. That’s a signal that the chlorophyll is beginning to break down and that most of the recharging has been done.
Bulb foliage makes a great addition to the spring compost pile. While you’re clipping the yellowed or browned leaves, think of it not as work but as “harvesting compost.” This year’s spent foliage is next year’s superb soil.
If you really have to do something pruner-related with your bulbs now, snip off the flower stalks.
These are the hollow, rounded shoots that had the flowers at the top and are different than the leaves, which surround the flower stalks but don’t produce blooms.
The flower stalks don’t do much photosynthesizing and can actually cost the plants energy by attempting to mature seeds that you don’t want, need, or use anyway.
So if you have the time and inclination, go ahead and cut the flower stalks now, then come back and get rid of the leaves after they yellow or brown.
This advice applies mainly to the bigger bulbs that produce stalks and leaves that stick up a foot or more – tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crown imperials, Spanish bluebells, and such.
The so-called “minor” bulbs produce much shorter foliage that practically disappears when it collapses. These include crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconite, Siberian squill, glory-of-the-snow, puschkinia, and grape hyacinths.
These are almost no maintenance. But if even the sparse brown remains of these bulbs bugs you, just toss a little mulch over them. Gone.
This separated bulb is being replanted right away in spring.
One other job you can do after your bulb foliage goes brown is divide the bulbs.
Although late September through early November is the ideal time to plant new bulbs, you don’t have to wait until then to dig and divide overcrowded clusters.
Just after the foliage collapses in spring is a better time to dig and divide because you can tell where the bulbs are. Unless you’ve done a good job marking, you’re digging in the dark in fall and likely to slice through and ruin those dormant bulbs then.
Go ahead and replant your spring-divided bulb clusters right away. No need to store them until fall.
Read George’s article on the “Best Bulbs for Every Situation”