Spring bulbs are a welcomed sight after a long, cold winter.

Jean Hersey is quoted as saying, “I love planting bulbs. It is making promises with tomorrow, believing in the next year and the future.” 

After the winter that we had, they have never been more beautiful than ever. There is something about seeing those fresh, green leaves start to push through the ground, only to be followed by the brilliant shades of yellows, reds, pinks and purples.

As the soil begins to warm up in the spring, the bulbs begin to emerge. It’s the smaller bulbs, which are not planted as deep in the soil, that are the first to appear, such as snowdrops, crocus and winter aconite. As the sun continues to warm up the soil deeper into the ground, then the larger bulbs emerge.

When you see that the bulbs are beginning to grow, it is a good time to feed them with an organic fertilizer that is high in phosphorus, such as bonemeal. The phosphorus helps to feed the roots and blooms. Fertilizing them at this time will also aid them in setting their flower bud for the next season.

Once the bulb has finished flowering, make sure that you remove the seed head, including the flower stalk. It takes a lot of the bulb’s energy for it to produce seed. That energy, which would have gone to the seed head, is better spent elsewhere.  

Let the leaves remain there until they have completely turned yellow and have gone dormant. While the leaves are still green, they are processing sunlight through photosynthesis and turning the sunlight into food for the bulb.

This food is stored in the leaves for a time. So, if you cut off the leaves while they are still green, you are robbing the bulb of much-needed food. 

Once the plant starts going dormant and the leaves start turning yellow, this is the signal that the food is now making its way back down into the bulb. Once the food has moved down to the bulb, it is at this time that the flower buds and leaves are set in the bulb for the next season. 

If the leaves are cut off prematurely, it robs the bulb of the food that it needs, resulting in smaller or no flowers for the next year.  

The more food that the bulb receives from the leaves, the bigger the flowers will be. You can fertilize the bulbs again, with bonemeal, once the bulbs have finished blooming.

Hardy spring bulbs can be left in the same spot and will come up year after year, giving you low-maintenance, reliable flowers. But sometimes even bulbs need a little help. 

How often should you divide bulbs? That really depends on the flower. As a rule, however, bulbs should be divided when they get so overcrowded that you start to notice that they are not producing as many flowers or that they don’t appear to be as vigorous. 

As bulbs grow, they’ll put out little offshoot bulbs (baby bulbs) that cluster around them. As these offshoots get bigger, the bulbs start to get too crowded, and the flowers stop blooming as vigorously. 

If a patch of flowering bulbs is still producing leaves but are producing less flowers than what it has in the past, that means it’s time to divide. This tends to happen every three to five years, especially with daffodils, which are a bit more vigorous in nature. 

When dividing bulb plants, it’s important to wait until the foliage dies back naturally. The bulbs need the foliage to store up energy for next year’s growth.

Once the leaves have died, carefully dig up the bulbs with a shovel. Each larger parent bulb should have several smaller bulbs growing off it.

Gently pry off these bulbs with your fingers. Squeeze the parent bulb — if it’s not squishy, it is still healthy and can be replanted. 

Make sure that you replenish your soil with compost or composted manure before replanting your bulbs. If you are unable to replant the bulbs right away, you can also store your new bulbs in a dark, cool, airy place until you’re ready to plant them again.

As the days continue to get warmer, make sure that you take some time to take in the beauty of the vast array of happy, colourful spring flowers.  

“Then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.” William Wordsworth

Joanne Young is a Niagara-on-the-Lake garden expert and coach. See her website at joanneyoung.ca

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society is pleased to be hosting a series of Saturday morning gardening classes, available to the public. They will be facilitated by Joanne Young on Saturday mornings, and they will run until May 31 at the NOTL Community Centre. Join us for the classes that interest you. For all the seminar details and to pre-register for the classes, visit notlhortsociety.com/classes.