A quick bulb question...

Sorry. I have a quick question to do with my flowerbed overhaul. I have decided to keep my mounded soil, but I have quite a few bulbs poking through. I can't afford to wait, if I don't dig over these beds I'll be up against it from the start like last year!

If I carefully lift bulbs as I dig and then replant, will I run the risk of losing them for this year?

 

I would personally let them flower then transplant if you definitely, definitely want the flowers. Otherwise, in the long term, they won't suffer any lasting harm and will continue to flower well at the very least from next spring even if you were to damage the root system ( the danger) whilst transplanting. I would ensure you feed them once transplanted.

 

I will be sorry to miss the flowers this year, but to be honest I think I've got to think of long term benefit. I can't cope with all the stuff that comes up from under the ground each year, so need to sort out what's what before everything starts to grow.

Is it just me that finds bulbs a pain in flower beds? I reckon they must be better in grass where you can just mow them off when they've died back.

 

Yep, I too find bulbs in the borders a pain. There are ways to hide them, by clever planting amongst later flowering perennials, so as the bulbs fade, the tatty foliage is hidden by emerging perennials until it can be cut back. I do this very well with daffs and alliums.

I've stopped growing tulips in the borders altogether however - a) because they flower later and the foliage doesn't seem to hide as well amongst the herbaceous perennials and b) I believe they do better once they die back, to be lifted and stored over summer. Now I only grow them in tubs and planters.

 

Ive have moved daffs many time in growth and they normally flower fine... even m,oved in flower with no harm....cant speak for other things but i dont see a big problem if done carefully

 

I'm glad it isn't just me! Although, no matter how much I admire you for lifting and storing bulbs, I am just too lazy :o