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hi there.
I have alot of out of season flowers just now. Like my hyacinths, and tulips. I was told to bag them up and store them away somewhere till nxt year. And when i asked a bunch of gardening companys on twitter and facebook they all said to keep them in their pots, just dont water them because it'll rot the bulbs. So tell me what should i really do with these?
I would have went with the gardening companys and kept them in their pots, but my mum who i stay with kept complaining about them saying they're unsightly and 'that looks dead, thats not gona grow back! bin it!' So she was wanting to bag them all as some neighbours said they bagged theirs. So she wanted to do same. I can't stand gardening with mum as she has no clue about gardening and she thinks just to bin it all once they start to look a bit dead.
So to bag or to keep in plant pot?




Answers

 

If you want to save the bulbs so they come back and flower again next year, you should just leave them alone. You should also keep them well watered while they are in flower & have green leaves. Once the leaves fall & go yellow & brown, then you can store them someplace . Keep them outdoors someplace. They need to go through the cold winter.

Another option would be to bin it & pot up some new bulbs in the fall.

11 May, 2017

 

You don't need to keep the pots on display once the bulbs have died back - they can go in a shed or garage until about September, when you can repot them with fresh compost. If you want them to flower again next year you should feed them after the flowers have finished, keeping the compost moist but not wet, until the leaves have died back, because that is the time the bulbs build up strength for next year.
If you don't want to keep them in their pots let them dry off after the leaves have died back, and then you can store the bulbs in a cool dry place in paper bags (not plastic or they may go mouldy)

11 May, 2017

 

Personally unless you need the pot for something else I'd leave the bulbs in them, you are then more likely to remember them come autumn!

11 May, 2017

 

Agree pots would be best but keeping on the right side of Mum matters too!

11 May, 2017

 

Hmm, Steragram, not so sure about that, not if she's just plain wrong, though a bit of tact sometimes goes a long way.

Keep them in the pots, out of the way - if you have space outdoors, the hyacinths might as well be put in the ground, and you can plant the tulips out too, now, just plant them a good 4 inches deep. If nowhere to plant outdoors, stand the pots outside or just keep them inside if you have no garden or outdoor area at all.

If they're large pots and the bulbs have died back completely, plant a pelargonium or a pansy or a bizzie lizzie in the top above the bulbs and let that grow and flower till end of summer, that way Mum won't be complaining. Its okay to water the pots if you're growing a plant in the top, just don't let them get waterlogged and don't leave them sitting in an outer tray or pot full of water, empty it after 30 minutes.

12 May, 2017

 

Note that forced Tulips rarely bloom the following spring, since the shallowly planted bulbs tend to break up into smaller, non-blooming bulblets, which then take a few years to build back up to blooming size, when they are planted at the proper depth.
Forced Hyacinths are a different story, as long as they were allowed to keep their foliage long enough. They frequently bloom again, though the flower spikes are more slender and graceful than the ones they produced when they were forced. The thick columns are the result of the grower picking out the the nascent spikes before they bloom, over 2-3 years before selling.

12 May, 2017

How do I say thanks?

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