Summer Vacation for Flower Bulbs and Tubers

Even for the most beautiful early bloomers, the season eventually ends. When the leaves of early bloomers turn yellow, it's time to send their flower bulbs and tubers on a well-deserved summer vacation.

Summer means vacation, and that's exactly what the flower bulbs and tubers of popular early bloomers are getting now. What that vacation looks like is up to each garden owner.

Once your vibrant early bloomers have served their purpose and accompanied you through spring with their bright colors, it's time for them to rest. Before that, though, you should cut off the faded seed heads, but leave the foliage intact. The leaves on the flower bulbs and tubers should remain until mid-May or June so the bulbs can gather new strength for the next season. The existing green on the bulbs absorbs sunlight and directly transfers that energy into the bulbs. In early summer, you can then cut off the remaining leaves.

How the "summer vacation" for your flower bulbs should look is entirely up to you as a garden owner. The flower bulbs and tubers can either be left in the ground or dug up. It makes no difference; early bloomers will survive the winter well and are guaranteed to return next spring. Some prefer to leave their bulbs and tubers in the ground, while others swear by digging them up after flowering. So, whether you want to do the extra work is completely up to you.

It's a different story, however, if the flower bulbs and tubers were planted in the lawn. In that case, they obviously can't just be removed after blooming without damaging the grass.

But regardless of whether the flower bulbs and tubers were planted in a bed or in the lawn: the green leaves of early bloomers should remain for about 6 weeks after flowering so the bulbs can gather enough strength. For bulbs planted in the lawn, this also means: no lawn mowing allowed! That would remove the plants' foliage. So, if your lawn has flower bulbs and tubers as residents, it won't get its first summer cut until later in the season.