TOW N.H.Do in May - Garden
Diane Whitehead (Mon, 03 May 2004 15:32:40 PDT)

In general, but particularly for Pacific Northwest North America and
Western Europe -

DEADHEAD
Snap off the dead flowers of any bulbs you don't want to set seed.
The stems of tulips and daffodils photosynthesize and therefore do
their bit towards next year, but if you need to maintain a show
garden, you can cut off the stems near the base, or even dig up
tulips and replant them out back so they can finish their yearly
cycle out of view.

CATCH
the seeds of early flowering bulbs by enclosing the pod in a little
bit of nylon stocking.

Snowdrops and fall-blooming crocus will be ripe soon. If you tied the
snowdrop pods to skewers last month, they will be easily seen. If
you didn't, visualize how tall the flower was, and search around the
plants at an equivalent distance to find the pod where it fell over.
Crocus seedpods are down at ground level, or a bit below if you've
mulched.

Anemone nemorosa and kin, (and also the non-bulb Hepatica) produce
naked seeds on the outside of the receptacle. A piece of nylon
stocking will catch these when they fall, and they should be sown
soon after falling. If you are not going to be giving the seeds to
someone else, you might as well let the seeds drop and germinate
around the mother plant, and then move the seedlings later.

FERTILIZE
Fertilize any bulbs that still have green leaves with something like
6-10-10 as they are storing nutrients for next year. Crocus and
other corms must replace the corm each year.

SEPARATE
crowded clumps of spring bulbs when the leaves have died, and you can
still see where they are. Dig them up with a fork and gently pull
them apart, then space them out in soil you've amended with compost.
You can also store them dry for the summer, something I have no
experience of.

PLANT
Dahlias, callas, crocosmia and cannas can be planted out. Dahlias
will flower prodigiously till frost, but other summer bulbs that
flower only once, like gladiolus and tigridias can be planted
several times for a succession of flowers.