Expert: Long Island Gardener - 5/5/2007

Question
I want to move some bulbs after blooming. Can I just transplant them leaves and all?   Zone8

Answer
Any time you move a plant -- bulbs, flowers, trees, anything with roots -- you wipe out the tiny roothairs that cover the roots.  The roothairs are there to maximize surface area all over the roots.  They enhance absorption of nutrients and water.  Roots can work without them, but you can see how much more surface area is exposed when roothairs are poking out all over the place.  Transplanting destroys almost all of them.

You can minimize the damage by keeping a rootball intact around the roots.  But there is always damage.  Always.  And it's major.  This is why plants 'go into shock' when they're moved.  It's a situation that's going to be terrible, or it can be more terrible, or it can be debilitating.

So now you know what to expect.  No matter how careful you are, it's going to be bad for the bulbs.

Now, if you're moving to another house, or if you have to install a driveway there next week, whatever, and you have to lift the bulbs, you have to lift the bulbs.

Keep as much of the rootball as you can.  Some people think, Oh, I'll just give it new soil, this is worn out, the new soil will be fresh.

Nope.

It does not work that way.

Keep a container right next to the bulbs, retain all the soil you can, move as little as possible, and replant asap.  This will at least minimize the catastrophic experience that those bulbs must endure.

It's not that I think the bulbs will die.  They still have roots, and the roots work well.  But in doing any damage at all, you are making a plant suffer.  Suffering plants do not bloom their best.  They may not bloom at all.

In the case of Tulips, you are probably not going to see much of a performance anyway.  Save the sweat and leave them if you won't lose sleep over it.  I know, I know, they are so gorgeous.  Cut your losses.

Daffodils are another matter.  They not only return each year, they can actually multiply.  Make sure they are in a sunny location with perfect drainage.  When they are done, you can lift them out of the ground and store in the basement in a paper bag.  Never use plastic bags to store anything like a bulb.

Sheltering the blooming/actively growing bulbs after transplanting them will give new roothairs time to develop.  And minimize water loss that causes wilting due to lack of roothairs.  A handful of bonemeal in the hole BEFORE you put the bulb in will nourish the roots directly and help build them up again.

Lots of work.  Worth every bit.  Thanks for writing.