Lifting naturalised Tulips while in flower

 

Hi there,

I have about 24 Tulips ("Queen of the night" I think) that are
flowering away nicely at the moment. They have been naturalising in
the garden for about 10 years or so.

Anyway, for reasons beyond my control I need to lift them in the next
few days. I am very worried about this as they have quite brittle
leaves and are about 8-10 inches down i.e. will need a good bit of
digging to get out.

Ideally I'd just wait til they have finished flowering and the leaves
have died back but this isn't possible.

So, any advice for digging them up and moving them while they are in
flower?

Cheers

Lord0

 


At the worst they will not flower next year if you dig them up, but you
won't kill them.

It just depends on how much damage you do to the leaves as to whether or not
the bulbs get enough food reserves to form and sustain a flowering bud.


--

Jeff
 

 


Cool - thanks. That's was I was hoping for.

You reckon I should replant them immediately or clean them up and wait
til later in the year?

 


I would replant them immediately, if not in the garden soil then in a deep
pot.

You never know, you might get a few flowers if some of the leaves and roots
survive and remain active.  If you don't replant them, you can guarantee
that the roots won't survive! ;-)

--

Jeff


 

 


Unless you do my normal trick, which is to accidentally slice them in two
with a gardening fork.  :-(