My hys and tulips did just OK. We had a cold dry spring this year.
Looking around the block (I'm also in Chicago) shows about the same for
everyone. I'd leave the bulbs and wait til next year. Ground is bone
dry already.

David Efflandt wrote:
On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 16:09:38 GMT, Tom Randy
wrote:
On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 14:00:13 -0700, JeninChicago wrote:

This year is the third year my hyacinths and tulips have been in
the
ground. I can't tell yet about the tulips, but the hyacinths look
like
they're putting up A LOT of greenery and very few flowers on
multiple
stalks. Am I supposed to dig them up and divide them or
something?

Thanks for the help and please reply to this news group.

Jen in Chicago


I dig up the tulips after flowering and toss them, they do crappy
the
following year. I actually toss them way down in the back yard and
just
leave them. After a few years they start blooming again and I have
a
naturalized look. Hys I dig up after the foliage dies back and
replant in
the fall.

I don't know about hyacinths, but I bought a home in 2002 and the
assorted
tulips and daffodils that were blooming that spring have flowered
beautifully every spring since then on their own. So I have not even

looked into what I should do with them. The only care I give them is
to
not mow them until their foliage shrivels up and just about
disappears.

But then everything else grows fine (including roses) with no more
work
than pruning in late winter or early spring, and plucking maple, elm,
and
peach seedlings (and dandilions), so maybe my 95 year old home has
naturally fertile soil. Daylilies on east drip edge of my gutterless
garage grow like weeds.