Garden Q&A: How can I ensure tulips flower again next year? 

Whether you're a gardening beginner or expert, Irish Examiner columnist Peter Dowdall has the answer to your questions

QUESTION

My tulips have finished flowering and the leaves are going brown, what should I do to get them through to next year?

ANSWER

Tulips, like daffodils, crocuses, alliums and so many others, are spring-flowering bulbs. 

The bulb beneath the ground, which is technically a modified stem, contains the food reserve for next year's foliage and flowers. 

When the flowers have died off, allow all the growth, stems and leaves to turn brown and die back naturally so that all the goodness is going back into the bulb for next year.

The correct advice for tulips is to then lift them from the ground, wrap them in some dry paper or straw and store them somewhere cool and dry before planting out again from October/November onwards. 

I say that is the correct advice but I don’t follow it, I’m a lazy gardener and I leave my tulips in the ground from year to year. 

They don’t all come back and so I always top up with new bulbs each autumn/winter.

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