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Spring Treatment of Bulbs

The faded blooms of the tulip and narcissus should be removed before seed pods form. It is usually impractical, even impossible, to do this with large naturalistic plantings of narcissus, but in the garden beds and borders, where blooms of highest quality are desired, care should be taken that this be done. Not only are the faded blooms unsightly, but the development of seed pods greatly weakens the vitality of the bulb, and this vitality is needed for next season's bloom.

Where bulbs have been naturalized on lawns or through meadows the grass should not be cut until the foliage of the bulbs has matured and died down. If the leaves are cut before they have ripened sufficiently, the stamina of the bulb is so impaired that it will not bloom the following year and in some cases it succumbs entirely.

Occasionally in a small garden the space occupied by the spring-flowering bulbs is desired for other plantings, and in such cases it is practicable to lift the bulbs very carefully, disturbing their roots as little as possible, and in some out-of-the-way corner to heel them in until the foliage has ripened.