Expert: Long Island Gardener - 10/26/2007

Question
We just moved to a new home in Norfolk, VA.  We planted many bulbs during the first week of October for flowering next spring.  Most of them were tulips and daffodils.  To our amazement, many of the bulbs began sprouting within two weeks!  The foliage appears to be that of a daffodil.  What should we do?  Should we let the plants continue to sprout and possibly bloom - or should we cut them down now?

Answer
Ground temps cooler than 50 degrees F are what you need for Bulbs to build their root system.  Roots continue to develop so long as soil temps stay above 45 degrees F.  You need a minimum of around 9 weeks of these sub-50 degree temps to successfully grow Spring blooms.  Early warm temps will get growth, but stems will almost certainly come up 'blind' -- no bloom at the tip -- this soon.

Which is not a bad thing.  Because if you use up the flower now, there will be no chance to re-build another flower before next Spring.

So if your Tulips make it to Spring 2008 WITHOUT sending up a successful flowering spike, they can still look terrific on schedule.  You simply get ONE (1) single chance per season when you're a Bulb.

If Winter hits and you DON'T see stalks with the '08 flowers on them, Praise the Lord and expect Bulbs to start anew next Spring '08, and probably do a second round in Spring '09, like nothing ever went wrong.

Don't cut anything.  Just let Nature take its course.  We can't do anything about these October Acts of God.  Odds are, you 'diversified' your Spring Bulbs collection without planning to do that, and some will survive while some will not.  But keep me posted nonetheless.