Blossoming of tulips - the triumph of spring. For the holiday to come annually, these bulbous plants will need special care.

Tulip care after flowering

When the tulip's petals fade, it is necessary to cut off the flower so that no effort is spent on setting seeds. Leaves should not be cut, they participate in photosynthesis, providing nutrition. Now the main thing is to create conditions for the development of a young replacing bulb, because the old dies off after flowering.

It is better to break off rather than pruning flowers with pruners. In the latter way, tulip diseases, for example, the variegation virus, are easily tolerated.

After flowering, only the flower head breaks off; no need to remove the entire peduncle

In order for the bulb to be larger, the plants after flowering fertilize a choice:

• daily infusion of ash;
• kalimagnesia;
• potassium nitrate.

Top dressing is done on moist soil. At this and other stages of growth, fertilizing spring flowers with manure or fertilizers with a high nitrogen content is not recommended. This can lead to rotting of the bulbs.

Do not forget about soil moisture. While the leaves are green, it is necessary to water the plants abundantly once a week if the spring is dry.

When watering tulips, you need to wet the soil to a depth of the roots: 35–40 cm

Bulb digging

So that the flowers do not fade, and the bulbs do not hurt and do not degenerate, any kind of tulip is dug up every year.  This is usually done in late June - early July. The exception is tulip babies; they are dug up once every two years. Experienced flower growers advise:

• hold the event in dry weather;
• submerge a shovel deeper than planting the bulb; in the process of growth, they deepen;
• destroy all diseased specimens;
• etch the dug planting stock in a disinfecting solution.

Digging too early leads to underdevelopment of the bulb and children. In addition, the decorativeness of future flowers will decrease. If you dig up late when the shoots dry out, there is a risk that the bulb has time to become infected with a fungus or the protective covering scales crack. This can lead to spoilage of planting material during storage.

If the leaves turn yellow or wilt, try wrapping the stem around your finger. If the shoot did not break, it turned out to be plastic, dig out a control specimen. If the bulb scales turn light brown, the time for digging has come.

Dug tulips do not immediately break off the stems, let them dry out, and nutrients go to the bulb

Once I was presented with a dozen bulbs of peony tulips. The blooming of stunning terry flowers lasted a long time thanks to the cool weather. But after yellowing the tops, I forgot to dig them. The next spring, not one came up. The neighbors say that they have rare new varieties that degenerate and do not germinate if they are not dug up annually.

Signs that it is time to dig up tulips - video

Drying and disinfection

Dug out tulips are laid out under a canopy in 2 layers for two days. After this time, the bulbous nests decay easily. Bulbs are peeled of dead roots and husks and disinfected in a 0.5% potassium permanganate solution for half an hour. The procedure will destroy the pathogens of rot and feed the tulip with trace elements. Then the bulbs are dried again, sorted by size and placed in open wooden crates or baskets, preferably in one layer.

In order not to get the bulbs one at a time, it is convenient to disinfect them by placing them in a gauze bag

Storage

During summer storage, the bud and buds of future bulbs are finally formed. In order for the aging process to occur correctly, they are first kept at a temperature of about 25 ° C for a month in a well-ventilated room. The optimum humidity is 60–70%. In August, the temperature is lowered to 20 o C, in September and then to 15 o -17 o C. If these rules are not followed, tulips may not bloom or give “blind” buds.

Periodically, planting material is examined and discarded by patients who are sick or moldy. Most often, stored tulips are affected by gray rot and fusarium. At the first disease, the bulbs are covered with a gray coating and gradually rot. In the second case, brown spots with a brownish border are formed, the bulbs exude an unpleasant smell and also decompose. If the lesion is small, the rot is cut with a sharp knife, the bulb is pickled, as usual, then sprinkled with ash and dried.

Poorly dried and non-disinfected bulbs are often affected by gray rot.

Landing

Ideally, tulips land in the fall, in late September - early November. Spring planting is also practiced in April. But then the tulips will bloom much later, because they will need about three weeks to root. It is advisable to change the place of planting every year so that pathogens do not accumulate in the soil.

Where spring flowers will grow, moisture should not stagnate.  The future flower bed is prepared in 2 weeks so that the earth evenly settles. The bed is dug up to the depth of the bayonet shovel and make compost, ash or superphosphate. If necessary, lime. On clay soils, peat is welcome. In the absence of rain, the area is shed with water.

Before planting, the bulbs are again sorted and disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate. Bulb planting depth - three of its heights. For large specimens, the distance between the bulbs is 15 cm, for medium - 10 cm, small - 5 cm. 25-30 cm are left on the aisles.

Advanced flower growers plant tulips in special baskets for bulbs, they are very easy to dig out

Do not cover the beds with organic flowers, so as not to attract rodents.  In the event of unforeseen frosts, agrofibre is spread on the flowerbed, which is pressed by the boards.

On the advice of an experienced grower, when planting, I put a handful of sand mixed with ash in the hole. On this "hill" I put the onion and fall asleep with earth. Now, the loss of tulips from a variety of rot on my heavy loam is minimized. And the bulb comes out larger, due to the fact that the sand loosens the soil and the roots freely develop.

Top dressing immediately after flowering, disinfection of the bulbs and warm storage with a subsequent drop in temperature - these are three whales of the grandiose spring flowering of tulips.

• Tulips after flowering - useful tips
• Video: what to do when tulips have bloomed

Tulips after flowering: what to do with tulips after they have bloomed. As soon as the tulips have faded, the question arises of what to do next. So that flowering is not limited to one season, let's figure out the procedure for fading
  tulips.

What to do with tulips after flowering?

After the tulips have finished flowering: they also require attention. In order for tulips to please you with colorful blooms next season; it is necessary to adhere to certain actions, namely:

• plentiful watering after flowering;
• top dressing;
• digging bulbs;
• proper storage.

Tulips after flowering - watering and top dressing

Tulips faded, petals showered, but this does not mean that the flower does not require special actions. It is necessary to create favorable conditions for the formation of a good bulb for next year.

• Firstly, after the petals have dried and crumbled, you need to cut the peduncle. If at this moment cut off the entire terrestrial part of the tulip, then the bulb will not form for flowering in the next season. It is necessary to wait until the leaves turn yellow and dry on their own - this will be a signal that the bulb has ripened. If the peduncle is not cut, then the bulb will give nutrients for seed ripening, and the bulb will be depleted.
• Secondly, tulips need abundant watering for several weeks after cutting off the tulip heads. It is also necessary to loosen the soil and remove weeds.
• Thirdly, faded tulips need to be fed with potassium phosphate fertilizer. Do not apply fertilizers based on nitrogen and chlorine.

Tulips after flowering - digging bulbs

After the leaves of the tulips turn completely yellow, dig up the bulbs from the soil, following the basic recommendations:

• we dig out the bulbs, preferably on a sunny, warm day, so that they dry out in the sun;
• we carefully handle the shovel so as not to damage the bulbs and roots of the tulips;
• after digging the bulbs, carefully inspect them. We throw out rotten and not sprouted bulbs;
• in rainy weather, wash the dug bulbs and dry well;
• we dig dug bulbs from stems, roots of superficial scales, the earth;
• if you notice that the bulb is affected by a fungus, then it must be treated with a fungicide;
• tulip bulbs can not be dug up for several seasons.

Tulips after flowering - storage of bulbs

Following the drying of the dug tulip bulbs, we proceed to sort them. We sort the sorted bulbs into mesh boxes in 1-2 layers. This is necessary so that the bulbs do not rot. For the proper development of bulbs, it is necessary to observe the temperature regime of storage:

• in July at 24-26 degrees;
• in August at 20 degrees:
• in September at 17 degrees;
• in the following months before landing, gradually lower the temperature to 12-15 degrees.

Compliance with the required temperature during storage is very important, because at this time the processes of formation of the kidneys, the laying of leaves, a flower occur. Also periodically look through the bulbs and throw away the missing ones. Bulbs can be stored in the cellar, basement, pantry.

• To propagate a tulip variety, as well as for growing a large bulb, it is necessary to cut off the flowering head for 4-8 days of flowering. This will contribute to the increase in the mass of the bulb.
• The crumbling petals, yellowed leaves must be removed from the garden so that they do not rot.
• Plant tulips in special containers or plastic baskets, this will greatly facilitate the work of caring for them. You can dig out containers with faded tulips and rearrange them in a secluded place for the ripening of bulbs.
• In order to understand the bulb has ripened or not, dig one and carefully examine it. If brown spots on the scales appeared on the bulb, then the bulb has ripened.

Despite the fact that with the advent of spring you can find tulips in almost every garden, not everyone knows how to care for tulips, from the appearance of the first tender shoots to the moment when all the flowers fade and the stems dry out.

Care for tulips from the moment of planting until the first buds appear

Tulips are quite persistent and unpretentious perennial plants, however, errors in caring for them throughout the growing season can very well lead to problems such as rotting of bulbs, an abundance of blind (non-blooming) buds, as well as the curvature of thin stems, giving the impression as if they were lying on a plot.

Tulips are quite resistant and unpretentious perennials

The first thing you need to take care of in order to significantly increase the chances of getting healthy tulips with flawless flowers: choose a suitable sunny place with loose, fertile soil for planting tulips and. If you do not pay attention to sorting planting material, selecting the best quality bulbs and pre-planting them, in the future you are unlikely to avoid damaging the tulips with diseases, which means that the hassle will noticeably increase.

Video about spring tulip care

The appearance, size of the flowers and the health of the tulips themselves will depend on what bulbs you plant on flower beds. Therefore, choose large bulbs without the slightest sign of rot, strong and smooth.

Delicate shoots of tulips emerge from under the snow from about the twentieth of March to mid-April, depending on weather conditions and on the characteristics of the variety. In the event that for the winter you mulched the planting of bulbs, it is recommended to remove the mulch after the snow has melted - this way the earth will warm up faster and the flowering of tulips will begin earlier.

The appearance will depend on which bulbs you plant on the flower beds

What is required from a gardener after sprouting tulips:

• At the stage of germination of tulip sprouts, they should be carefully examined to immediately determine which bulbs did not germinate, which plants showed signs of disease. The revealed “marriage” needs to be dug up and immediately destroyed, otherwise the diseases can go to the remaining tulips.
• Around the small shoots of tulips that have appeared, the earth is gently loosened, increasing the access of the necessary oxygen to the roots and helping to reduce the evaporation of moisture from the earth. In general, the care of tulips in the garden implies regular loosening of the soil throughout the entire growing season, and especially after watering and rains.
• Before flowering, tulips should be watered fairly moderately, but the soil should never dry out.
• The first top dressing is carried out, as soon as the sprouts appear from the ground. During this period, tulips especially need nitrogen for rapid growth and leaf formation. For feeding, you can use nitroammophos or crystallin with the addition of trace elements in tablets.
• The following dressing is not necessary, but tulip tulips will be more useful than harm from the introduction of complex mineral fertilizers when the second or third leaf is unfolded.

The first top dressing is carried out, as soon as the sprouts appear from the ground

• During budding, tulips absorb nutrients from the soil most efficiently and are in dire need of potassium and phosphorus for the normal formation of a peduncle with buds. Fertilizing at this time should contain more phosphorus with potassium and less nitrogen.
• When the buds begin to bloom, you can again feed the tulips with full mineral fertilizer.

Top dressing must be done very carefully so as not to damage the roots or burn the leaves, so it is best to combine it with watering or spend on a rainy day. The first top dressing should not be scattered in the snow, as it comes off unevenly. It is more advisable to make top dressing in the form of solutions.

The main actions during the flowering of tulips

When the buds begin to open one by one, and magnificent flowers appear on the flowerbed, tulips require special care. Water them abundantly, spending 10 liters of water per square meter, so that moisture penetrates to the roots, and the water should not be cold. When watering and fertilizing in sunny weather, moisture should not fall on the leaves and especially on the flowers to avoid burns.

During the abundant flowering of tulips, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers must be applied, the proportion of nitrogen should be minimal or you can completely do without it. Trace elements such as boron, zinc, manganese will be useful - they have a beneficial effect on the condition of tulips in general and on the development of bulbs.

During the abundant flowering of tulips, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers must be applied

Experienced flower growers during the flowering of tulips carry out sorting (transplantation of impurities of other varieties to maintain the purity of a particular variety) and phytoprocessing (removing diseased plants from plantings). Blooming tulips need regular inspection so that plants infected with diseases can be immediately destroyed. Especially dangerous is the viral disease of the variegation of tulips.

It is incurable and is transmitted with the sap of plants during cutting, so garden tools need to be decontaminated with alcohol or potassium permanganate. During the budding and flowering of tulips, it is easiest to identify.

Do not forget to loosen the soil between the tulips after each watering, in order to prevent the formation of crust on the soil and at the same time to destroy weeds that are extremely undesirable for tulips.

Tulips have faded - what to do next?

Unfortunately, the flowering of tulips does not last very long, and after a few days the magnificent flowers begin to fade, reducing the aesthetic appeal of the flowerbed. The fastest tulips bloom in hot, dry weather. Nevertheless, even if all the flowers have already withered, continue to water the plantings for another two weeks, because at this time there is an intensive formation of bulbs underground - due to regular watering, they better accumulate nutrients.

So that the yellowing tulips do not spoil your garden with their dull appearance, plant the bulbs in special baskets or containers - then the flowering plants can be dug together with containers and removed from the flower bed to another place for the ripening of the bulbs.

To prevent yellowing tulips from spoiling your garden with their dull appearance, plant bulbs in special baskets or containers

Caring for tulips after flowering is based on the following rules:

• if you plan to propagate the variety you like and grow large healthy bulbs for this, cut the flower heads on the fourth or eighth day after blooming (when the flowers are ready to crumble), then the bulbs will begin to intensively increase their mass;
• all fallen petals must be removed immediately, otherwise they will accumulate in the axils of the leaves and rot;
• it is impossible to cut the stems of faded tulips until they turn yellow at all, otherwise the bulbs will stop their development;
• you can find out if the bulbs are ripe by digging out one of them - the formed roots and brown spots on the scales indicate that the bulb is ready;
• dig the bulbs carefully, lowering the shovel deeply so as not to accidentally injure the roots, try to do this on a sunny day to be able to dry the dug bulbs on the street.

The harvested bulbs are sorted, processed and sent for storage. First, the future planting material is stored at a temperature of +20 degrees, and from the second half of August - at +17 degrees.

Video about caring for tulips after flowering

In the fall, choosing, the bulbs are planted on prepared beds and watered abundantly. Caring for tulips in the fall also consists in preparing the plants for winter. To do this, in mid-October, planted bulbs are fed with ammonium nitrate, the bed is mulched with a small layer of peat and covered with the onset of cold weather.

Not all gardeners agree that tulip bulbs need to be replanted annually, however, thanks to a transplant, the flowers remain large, beautiful, and suffer less from diseases.

After the flowering period ends, the care of the tulips does not end. The process of bulb formation and the accumulation of nutrients at this time is just beginning and will continue for several more weeks. Therefore, it is impossible to immediately get rid of the remaining foliage and dig out the tulip bulbs. To obtain high-quality seed material, it is important to water the faded plants in a timely manner and make fertilizing.

  Necessary actions after flowering

Do not stop caring for tulips even after their flowering is completed. Otherwise, the flower bulb will stop its development.   For the correct formation of bulbs, the care of tulips after flowering is as follows:

• To get large bulbs of the kind you like, the tulip heads are cut a week after blooming before the flowers begin to crumble. This will allow the bulbs to intensively build up mass.
• Watering does not stop until the plant is trimmed.
• The fallen petals are immediately removed so that they do not accumulate in the axils of the leaves and do not rot.
• Foliage is not trimmed until it completely turns yellow so that bulb development does not stop.
• To control ripening, they dig one bulb and look at it for the presence of formed roots and brown spots on the scales.
• In order not to injure the roots when digging 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 should be deep.

  Pruning

After flowering is completed, only those plants that have completely withered and turned yellow can be pruned. In most cases, after completing the nutrition, the flower spontaneously discards the peduncle, leaves and arrow. But some varieties need additional pruning when grown.

For the accumulation of nutrients and ensuring the correct formation of bulbs, the peduncle and foliage of the plant are responsible. After flowering ends, the necessary chemical processes continue in these flower organs. Therefore, premature cutting of the remaining aerial parts of the tulip can cause the death of the bulb.

Pruning can be done no earlier than a month after 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, foliage is not mass trimmed.

  Fertilizer application

To obtain high-quality seed material, it is necessary that the soil is enriched with such beneficial substances as potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. With their deficiency, flower development 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 are formed throughout the summer, top dressing should be done not only during the growing season, but also after flowering. To do this, make potassium-phosphorus fertilizers, after diluting them in a bucket of water for irrigation. Concentration should be 2 tbsp. l on a bucket of water.

  How to dig and save bulbs?

Bulbs of tulips 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 by infectious diseases. Bulbs should be dug up after pruning the plant in late June or early July. At the same time, early varieties of tulips are first dug up and only later later.

So that the bulbs dry out faster, they are removed in sunny dry weather. After digging, the resulting material is carefully inspected. Well-developed roots should have healthy roots and brown scales. Damaged and sick need to immediately throw out. Then the selected specimens are lowered for several minutes in a 5% potassium permanganate solution and dried.

Before planting in open ground for storage, the bulbs are transferred to boxes with a mesh bottom, so that the air circulates better. Seed 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 landing on a flower bed, it should be +17 degrees.

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

  How to plant tulips?

The optimal time for planting tulips begins in the fall in mid-September. Then the plant will have time to take root and in spring will start to grow in March. But it is better to navigate the weather. The air temperature at this time should be from +5 to +7 degrees. In the northern regions, this period can move towards the beginning of 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. Damaged specimens are discarded. If expensive varieties of tulips turned out to be sick, then damaged places are carefully cut with a sharp knife, capturing a small piece of healthy along with diseased tissue. Then the cut out places are dried for 20 minutes and treated with fungicide. When planting, such bulbs are planted separately from healthy ones.

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

It is necessary to complete the process of planting tulips in 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 place of planting of tulips must be covered with a layer of humus or peat.

“Can I cut tulips after flowering?” Gardeners have long answered this question. They are much more interested in when to cut tulips after flowering, because the process has its own nuances.

In today's article, you will learn how and when to cut tulips after flowering, and when to dig out planting material, how to store bulbs, when to plant them, and how long after that they will bloom.

Before pruning, tulips are prepared in order to carry out the procedure with minimal damage to the plants. It is necessary to reduce the frequency of fertilizing and watering by the end of flowering tulips. All the nutrients necessary for laying new shoots, the bulb accumulates through the stem and leaves.

The stem and leaves serve as a kind of battery for tulips, so premature pruning can kill the bulbs and forever deprive the gardener of the pleasure of observing the flowering of these plants.

When to crop tulips: after flowering. The end is indicated by the complete extinction of the surface part. The stem and leaves have completely lost their petals. In addition, they will be dry and will easily become detached from the bulb.

Here the gardener enters: it is necessary to mark where the bulbs are in the soil mixture, then with a sharp knife or secateurs (disinfected) cut off the already faded surface of the tulips. Cropping completed.

What to do with tulip bulbs after pruning?

After flowering is completed, the surface of the tulips is trimmed, the location of the bulbs in the soil mixture is noted, the gardener proceeds to dig the bulbs from the soil. In order to make this easier, the soil mixture can be loosened up a bit, then pry off the bulb with a garden spatula and remove it to the surface.

When to dig tulip bulbs:

• Second half of June;
• Early July;
• When the leaves are completely yellowed;
• If the surface part wilted;

Where and how to store tulip bulbs after digging?

Dug out tulip bulbs are placed in separate wooden boxes, then slightly sprinkled with earth (1-2 layers). Tulip bulbs are stored sorted by date of extraction and grade. In order to ease your future task, you can prostrate the bulbs.

Bulb capacity is placed in a cool, dark place. Future planting material should not be exposed to direct sunlight or lighting, water. In a place where tulip bulbs are stored after digging, drafts, insects, rodents, and temperature fluctuations are excluded.

Where to store tulip bulbs:

• In the attic;
• In the basement;
• In the pantry;
• In a dry basement;
• In a dry cellar;

As soon as the planting season begins - the temperature of the soil and air, the lighting will be available - the tulip bulbs return to their original place, but already in the prepared, nourished, moistened and loosened soil. Large bulbs will begin to grow and bloom in the first year after re-planting, while those that are smaller will sprout in the first year and bloom in the second.

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