Forum home Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

tulips in pots

Hi

I know my 'hero' Monty (GW) says to treat tulips like an annual and throw away the bulbs when they are finished!!!  BUT  this year I had such wonderful pots full of tulips which were absolutely lovely and I'm louthed to simply disguard them.  They have all died down now and as I don't need the pots for other bits can I simply leave them to maybe come up next year OR is Monty right and I just need to get on with it and rid of them!!#

Thanks any advice will be helpful

«1

Posts

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    Welll, I have kept tulips in pots when I hve been delighted with them just as you have been, and they have never done anything worth looking at again - though a few of those in the ground have done, but not reliably.  Now I tend to take Monty's advice, empty the pots and enjoy starting over when the autmn begins.  I found it such a shame to wait - the greenery would start but the flowers never came good, a few tried by mostly just shrivelled up and died.   Better to start again, most bulbs are as cheap as chips, and then you can try other lovely colours and mixtures for next Spring. 

  • Mutley200Mutley200 Posts: 36

    Thanks Bookertoo

     

    I think I probably knew this would be the advice - you are right - bin and start again.  Do you think putting them in the 'green bin' (collected every two weeks) is the way to dispose of them?

     

     

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    I actually put mine in the compost, on the grounds they are organic, and a miracle might occur and the compost will burst into flower next Spring!  It never has, but there is little much more organic than a bulb so in they go. 

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I've just tipped mine out of the pots as they'd died back. they're about half the size they were when they went in. not worth keeping



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Mutley200Mutley200 Posts: 36

    OK - tomorrow it's the compost tip for all my lovely tulips - thanks for all the tips - you've convinced me it's no worth the bother!

  • If you go to a good Autumn show, like Malvern you will have the fun of choosing next year's bulbs from all the treasures available. Plant, wait, enjoy....bin.

  • chickychicky Posts: 10,409

    I've got my order in my head already - fell for Ballade at Chelsea this yearimage

  • tuppence5tuppence5 Posts: 8

    I brought some really great Tulips last year and had a lovely show of them - I am in the process of drying them off with the hope that next year they will return ..I just hate throwing anything away. . but this wont stop me buying some more later in the year  - as I have plenty on my wish list which is growing by the day.  Bookatoo - I put some really old tulip bulbs on my compost last year and guess what they all came up in my compost - transferred them to pots and most of them flowered !

  • I am like you Tuppence, just could not bring myself to throw them away.  I have planted them in the garden just to see if they do come up again.  If they don't come up they will just rot down into the soil anyway.

    Will buy new ones this year for the pots.

  • Chicky...I bought Abbu Hassan last year but it turned out to be something else... similar but different. I am determined to find it this year. It was on display at Chelsea so I know for sure the one I had was wrong... but beautiful nonetheless.

    I also planted last years tulips in the vegetable bed and got some flowers for cutting, altho' numbers were down. My runners are planted on top of them at the moment so I may get a few more flowers next spring.

Sign In or Register to comment.