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Tulips but then what?
Matthew Cotton
Posts: 9
in Plants
Hi All.
In the Autumn I plan to plant a border of Tulips to enjoy next spring. But once I've cut down the tulip leaves I'll be left with an empty border. Any ideas what I can then plan to keep the border going throughout next summer?
0
Posts
you don't cut the leaves , leave them to use sunlight to feed the bulb up for the following year.
Thanks Hostafan1. So I shouldn't grow anything else in the border other than Tulips?
sorry, that's not what I meant. I meant don't cut the foliage, just dead head them after the flowers pass over.
If you plant herbaceous plants around them,they'll fill out as the foliage of the tulips starts to look tatty.
It depends on how big the border is, you can plan whatever you want to follow on, summer bedding , or shrubs or a mix.
Ah ok, I get it. Thank you.
my pleasure.
Some people just grow tulips for a season, dig them up and replant new bulbs in Autumn. They don't always perform so well in following years. I leave them for a second year, if they flower, they can stay, if they're rubbish, they go on the compost heap.
I've just read an article on Sarah Raven's webpage that advocates placing the bulb as deep as 20cm under the surface as this helps protect the bulbs and increase the chance of a second year of flowers. Do you follow this advice?
plant them the depth of a hand trowel, which is pretty much that deep . So I suppose I do .
I often plant them in pots and dot them about when in flower , and hide away later.
I think the standard thing to do is plant bedding plants (i.e. half-hardy annuals) when the tulips are fading in May. They will then provide a display for the rest of the summer. Things like Lobelia, petunias, Cosmos, Alyssum, Pelargonium etc. etc. are very popular. You can buy them - there are loads in the shops then - or raise them from seed/cuttings yourself if you have a greenhouse.
The tulips - pretty well any bulbs - will do better in subsequent years if they're fed from flowering time onwards when they're making the buds and storing food for next year. And never remove the leaves till they've faded!
But I'm by no means an expert on this - someone else who is will be along in a minute!