Caring for Spring Bulbs and Flowering Shrubs After the Blooms Fade

PROPERLY CARING FOR SPRING BULBS AND FLOWERING SHRUBS AFTER THE BLOOMS FADE WILL SET UP YOUR PLANTS FOR A MORE BEAUTIFUL BLOOM NEXT SPRING.

It is so rewarding to look out on a bed full of beautiful bulbs and flowering shrubs after a long winter. The diverse textures, colors and sizes available for gardeners today is inspiring. I love the challenge of putting them all together to create a beautiful season-long display.

But, without care, those same beautiful beds can quickly grow out of control. Small shrubs and trees quickly become large shrubs and trees.

And flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinth, and daffodils can multiply quickly, outgrow their space and quit blooming due to overcrowding. Caring for spring bulbs and flowering shrubs is not hard…but it does take time.

Caring for spring bulbs

I have oodles of spring bulbs in my yard. The earliest crocus and daffodils begin to bloom in early March. The latest tulips and daffodils really don’t stop blooming until May day.

While the tulip and daffodil show is on my yard is amazing. But all too quickly those flowers fade and the unsightly leaves and stems left in their place must be tended to.

Deadheading

Deadheading or clipping your bulb stems down to the leaf level soon after the flowers fade will help your bulb conserve energy it needs to grow a healthy flower the next spring.

Unclipped flower stems send the signal to the bulb to expend energy to the seed head. Thus depleting the energy stored in the bulb for division and growth through the summer.

When to clear the leaves

I know it is tempting to remove all those tulip and daffodil leaves when the flowers fade, but please don’t! Those leaves are bringing nutrients and energy to the bulb to store for use later.

In the summer and fall bulbs are growing and reproducing and storing up energy for next spring’s bloom. If you take away those leaves that have not dried down you are taking away it’s food source.

Dividing

Every few years your bulbs will need dividing. As the bulbs reproduce they become crowded and stop flowering well. Dividing a crowded clump of bulbs will give the bulbs room to spread, get more nutrients and thus flower better.

Some ‘experts’ say the best time to divide bulbs is in the fall. But, without precisely marking your bulbs, there is really no way to find them at that time of the year. And I hate to disturb happy bulbs just before they go into winter.

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So, I divide mine just before the leaves just begin to turn from green to brown. If you wait until the leaves are dry and brown they come loose from the bulbs too easily and it is difficult to get them all out of the soil without breaking off the stems.

If you do it too soon, you inhibit nutrient and energy absorption when you dislodge their roots and leaves.

After you carefully dig up your whole clump of bulbs, put about 7 or 8 of the healthiest bulbs back into the hole at the same depth which they came out. Tamp in the soil and you are all done!

Caring for spring flowering shrubs

Spring flowering shrubs like bright yellow forsythia, flowering almond and lilacs are the harbingers of spring. Shrubs that go unnoticed most of the year suddenly take center stage and steal the show.

But, if these shrubs aren’t pruned correctly, or at the right time of the year you will not have any blooms the next season.

Timing of pruning is important

Pruning at the right time is critical for return bloom. You never want to prune your spring blooming shrubs in the early spring. It is too close to the time of their blooming and you will cut off all the buds, which formed the summer before.

After they finish blooming is the perfect time to give them a trim or even to severely cut them back.

How to Deadhead

Deadheading, is the process by which we cut the spent flower blooms from the plant. In the case of lilacs it is simply just cutting off the dried flower heads. Be sure when you do this that you only clip right below the spent flower and do not take off the next set of leaves. That is where next springs flower will form.

How to prune back

In the case of white flowering almonds and forsythia, which both bloom all the way along the branch, you cannot just deadhead. You must prune out the entire branch. In both of these plants, the flowers form on the new growth from the previous summer.

So, in order to stimulate that new growth it is best to completely prune out the branches that just bloomed. That is one year old wood. If left it will grow out new shoots from the main shoot and next years blooms will only be on those tips.

So, it is best to just prune that spent wood completely out. Clear down to the base of the bush. The new branches coming from the base of the shrub that will be small and the plant will become quite small after cutting the spent blooms.

But, pruning the bush will invigorate those small branches to shoot up and form up buds for next spring. And your show of flowers will be absolutely stunning. Be sure to watch the video below for great demonstrations on how to do it.

Caring for spring bulbs and flowering shrubs video

My ‘Can’t Live Without’ Garden Tools & Helps List

My top three most used tools in my veggie garden and yard are my Hori Hori, my latex dipped gloves and my Felco pruners. These three items go with me EVERY time I go out to work in the yard and garden…without fail!

Shep Ogden’s book also had a great impact on me years ago and I used his bamboo tomato trellis system for many, many years before converting to my current system shown in the pictures.

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Thanks for joining me here in the farmhouse to learn about caring for spring bulbs and flowering shrubs!

I hope this information on caring for spring bulbs and flowering shrubs was helpful! Leave me a comment if you have any questions or have ideas I didn’t discuss.

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