View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
Old 18-05-2010, 05:02 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Jeff Layman[_2_] Jeff Layman[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,166
Default Lifting naturalised Tulips while in flower

"Lawrence Tierney" wrote in message
...
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?


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