Bulbs are a very convenient of starting plants off. Easy
to buy and transport when dormant and because they have the energy store
for the leaves and flowers already in them, it almost doesn't matter where
you put them, you know that the first year at least will be a success.
They can be grown as outdoor plants in the ground, as
useful container plants or as indoor flowers for a fraction of the cost
of a real bunch of flowers or ready-flowering plant when they're in bud
or bloom.
If you want to be successful with bulbs, you need to treat
them as any other plant, but more so just after they've flowered. This year's
flowers comes from the energy already stored in the bulb, next year's will
come from energy built up and stored after the flowers are over. Bulbs also
tend to have only a short season of leaf before they dry up and lay dormant
for next year, and so they have a much shorter preparation and larder filling
time than perennials and shrubs for instance.
The first thing is to dead head them, so none of the energy
left in the bulb or being made in the leaves goes into seed production.
You then need to allow them to retain their leaves as long as possible,
still watering and feeding them as you would any other plant at this time.
If you have had the bulb as a house-plant, then put it
outside as long as it's not really cold and frosty, preferably in a warm
sunny position. After a while, a couple of months or so, the leaves will
start to turn brown and shrivel, stop watering when this happens, but leave
the leaves intact as the last thing the bulb will do is to remove any goodies
in the leaves and store them in the bulb too.
You can remove the leaves when they are dead and brown.
If the bulb is in a pot, either put the pot and bulb together somewhere
dry, dark and cool, or dig the bulb out of the compost its in and store
it separately for replanting later on. Don't store in a plastic bag
as they encourage molds, a paper bag or dry peat or similar are ideal.
