I need to dig up tulip bulbs when they have finished blooming in the Spring. Should I wait until the leaves have faded and gone brown or can I dig up while they still have green leaves and transplant to another section of my garden immediately bulb with green leave attached. Thank you. Lorrie
If you really need to transplant earlier while there are green leaves, you should be very gentle and careful that you don’t damage the bulb or any of the foliage as the leaves are what the bulbs rely on in order to re-charge the bulb for next years blooms. The leaves are a great locator as to where the bulbs are located in the soil.
If you wait until most of the foliage has died back, the bulb will have got most of its nutrients and energy already stored. The risk here is that you wait too long and miss getting all the bulbs out as once the leaves start to wilt, its easy to miss the odd one.
If I had to choose what I’d do in my garden, I’d wait until some of the leaves are brown and starting to fall over but the bulb still has some green leaves, so I’d do somewhere in between the two options above.
Hope this helps.
September 28, 2021