Planting spring flowering bulbs

any more than two years in a pot without lifting and refreshing the compost though.

Another option is to treat your bulbs like annuals and lift and discard them once the flowers have gone replanting a fresh the next year. This is a little profligate but might be a good option for a very small garden. A variation on this option is to lift the bulbs immediately after flowering and pot up or replant elsewhere in the garden, possibly the edge of a vegetable plot. These bulbs can then be lifted and stored for replanting the following year after their foliage has withered. This method may have an impact on the flowering ability in the subsequent year but is a viable option. Tulips are generally lifted annually anyway after the foliage is spent.

Tying up the bulb foliage into bundles has been one method of solving the untidy foliage problem for years. This involves basically bunching the leaves together bending them over into a bob and securing them with elastic bands or tying string. By doing this you are limiting the amount leaf exposed to the sun and therefore limiting the amount of storage fuel the plant can produce for next years flowers. Its an option and quite popular but be aware that it may impact next years flowers.

Planting your bulbs in a site amongst other plants that will help hide or disguise the untidy foliage is another option. Early flowering herbaceous plants like Dicentra and or grasses foliaged flowers like Hemerocallis are good options. Planting in grass is also worth consideration with some bulbs. Daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, bluebells and Camassia are all suitable. While you still have to allow the foliage to go through its life cycle it can be less noticable in long grass. Once the bulb foliage is spent and the grass cut back it will green up again at that time of year within a couple of weeks. Alternatively plant where you can leave the long grass as a nature reserve and cut back in September.