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Which bulbs can be saved...

• Message 1. 

  Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Saturday, 14th April 2012

  I've alot of bulbs in pots and want to use the pots later in the year for other plants. After dying back can daffs and crocus be lifted and stored for next year? If so when and how is the best way to do this?
  
  I've also read somewhere that tulips can't be used again for a second year as they seldom flower in year two.
  
  ...and finally I've quite alot of dwarf gladioli and started to pot then up by burying the bulbs but recently watched a programme showing these being planted in modules. The bulb was rested on the compost and still half showing to give the roots a start. Has anyone started gladioli off like this and if so how well did it work and at what point did you plant out. Can gladioli go out before the last forcasted frost.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Saturday, 14th April 2012

  Yes, daffs and crocus can be lifted, but it is easier to leave them in the pots and just plant over them. Remember that the leaves need to die down fully before lifting.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Saturday, 14th April 2012

  Depending upon what you want to plant in these pots I would go along with Alina.
  
  Size of pots could be an issue. If they are relatively small pots the root ball of your new plantings might wrap around the bulbs and when you remove the plants after flowering you may pull the bulb/ s out with them.
  
  If they are in deep pots/ planters then I would just leave them in the pot.
  
  Regarding your gladioli starting them up on the top of containers is just a means of early planting to get them going, a bit like chatting potatoes if you like, it means you get them to flower a bit earlier.
  
  Where it is a useful process is to stagger the flowering period! That is; do only a few in this manner and the rest at normal planting out time and the ones you have set up early should flower before the later plantings thus extending your flowering season.
  
  This link might help.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Sunday, 15th April 2012

  Thank you for the replies...
  
  The daffs, tulips and crocus are in shallow pots and a trough. Pots about 10inches deep and trough less than this. The terracotta pots fit nicely into chimney stacks I have hence wanting to reuse the pots.
  
  I've a selections of plants to go in the pots, haven't decided which yet- teddy bear sunflowers, lillies(dwarf one's), nasturgium, dwarf gladioli, various bulbs already planted in smaller pots in GH to bring them on. Probably lettuse leaves in one. I was also going to split a rosemary plant to see if it will grow on a woody stem with a ball of rosemary on the top. The trough is for radish and spring onions.
  
  Will plant the remaining gladioli bulbs on top of the compost, I started off with 50 bulbs but was staggering them in pots submerged in compost, several weeks apart to prolong the flowering season, I've some coming up but not many. At least if they are on top of the compost you can see which are going to grow.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by linda (U1797657) on Sunday, 15th April 2012

  Regarding the tulips, I grow quite a lot. Some of them I lift and others I leave in the ground. Haven't had a problem with them not flowering, but I heard that you should change the soil each year. As I always mulch the ones left in the ground I assume this might serve the same purpose.
  
  I imagine they'll run out of steam at some point, but for now they're fine

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Sunday, 15th April 2012

  I never lift my spring bulbs annually, I think I have only ever lifted them once in the last ten years or so and that was last year.
  
  I did the back garden then, and plan on lifting those in the front garden this year and that will be it for the next decade.

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Wednesday, 18th April 2012

  When the tulips have stopped flowering I might put them in a plastic pots behind the GH for next year and see if they come again.
  
  I've some more bulbs in a flower bed planted in bottomless pots, would need to go out and check the label though to see what they are.

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