Flower bulbs delight us with their blooms. As soon as it withers, all of its splendor is gone. The foliage of most varieties is inconspicuous and downright boring compared to the flowers. However, grabbing scissors straight away is a fatal mistake.
How do you properly care for faded flower bulbs?
Flowered flower bulbs should not be cut off immediately. Allow the foliage to yellow and dry so the bulb can absorb nutrients. Remove only the wilted flower to avoid wasting energy on seed formation.
The leaves are valuable
It's nothing to our eyes, but the foliage is valuable to the flower bulb. It provides her with energy for the flowering phase and also has an important task to fulfill afterwards. The tuber gradually extracts all the nutrients from the leaves and stores them for the next season. This is the only way the coming bloom can be a great success.
Wilting leaves
If you want to reuse flower bulbs, you should give them a chance to fill up with nutrients. Leave the leaves on until this process is complete. You will notice this when the leaves turn yellow and dry. Only then can they be cut off or fall off on their own.
Remove wilted flowers
After flowering, seed production starts. The plant invests a lot of energy in it. From the gardener's perspective, this is usually a waste that needs to be stopped. Therefore, cut off withered flowers as soon as possible to encourage tuber growth. However, the stem should still remain, because the tuber can also get the nutrients back from it.
Allow seed formation
Many flower bulb varieties can be propagated from seeds. Spring bloomers that are suitable for naturalization can spread in ever greater numbers. If this is what you want, the withered flower must of course not be touched.
Flower bulbs in winter
Flowered flower bulbs, whose foliage has already completely wilted, can now expect a break. The perennialspring bloomers are hardy and can remain in the ground. But they can also be dug up and overwintered in a room. Summer bloomers such as begonias, gladioli and dahlias have to be removed from the ground at the first frost.
- Carefully loosen the soil, pull out the bulbs
- remove soil residue
- sort out bad or damaged copies
- Let flower bulbs dry for a few days
- collect in airy nets or wooden boxes
- do not layer on top of each other
- place in a dry room
- Winter frost-free at 0 to 8 degrees Celsius
