The question of how to properly plant tulips worries every gardener who wants to admire them every spring. Their feature is that they bloom due to the forces accumulated in the past year. Therefore, if you buy good bulbs and plant them in poor soil - buds will still appear. But by the next spring, with improper care, they may be small, open poorly, and perhaps the plant will not bloom at all. Before you find out when to transplant tulips, you need to understand the features of care and cultivation, so that after that there is something to dig out and transplant.
Tulips need a sunny place and loose rich soil. If you want to cut flowers for a bouquet, then here you need to remember some rules. The tulip builds strength and grows the bulb due to the leaves. Therefore, it can not be cut off at the very ground. You need to leave one leaf, and preferably two. Due to them, plant growth and bulb nutrition will continue. The knife should be sharp. After cutting one flower, before cutting the second, the blade must be treated with alcohol. This is done for disinfection, as some viral diseases can be transmitted with juice from one plant to another. Digging bulbs is best every year.
If the aboveground part has dried out, then the time has come when you can transplant tulips without injuring them. This is another feature. The bulb is replaced every year. If it is dug up too soon, the young bulb will be white, and the tulip will not bloom next spring. This will not affect the health of the plant. It’s just that the onion has not yet ripened. But still, when asked about when to transplant tulips, an experienced grower will answer that it is better to do this on time. The correct formation of the plant depends on the time of digging. Another way to determine when tulips can be transplanted is to try to wind the aerial yellow part of the flower onto your fingers. If this succeeds, you can proceed with the transplant.
If you leave the bulbs in the ground until next year, then nothing will happen to them, and by next spring the plants will bloom lushly and brightly. But this is only if the summer and autumn are warm and moderately rainy. But this does not always happen. Therefore, in order to protect the bulbs from death, it is better to transplant them every year. In addition, while in the ground, they are at risk of attack by various pests and fungal diseases. After the bulbs have been removed from the soil, they must be dried and treated with antifungal remedies. This will ensure their safety and beautiful flowering plants in the spring.
Digging tulips is the most convenient and safest way with a pitchfork. Sometimes it happens that the bulb forms not one new, but several substitutes. Small onions will not bloom. They will need to grow up for some time. There are early, middle and late varieties. Accordingly, to the question of when to transplant tulips, in this case the weather and the characteristics of the ripening of the varieties will tell.