Blind bulbs

katjohnston5 · April 2023

Help! Most of my bulbs have come up blind this year and I don’t know what to do with them. In 2020 I planted quite a few bulbs, crocuses, snowdrops, tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinths. In 2021 most flowered wonderfully, the garden was very new and I didn’t have anything else planted yet. Can’t remember about 2022 as I was away and don’t have any pictures. But this year I’ve only had 4 tulips flower (of 30 bulbs), no daffodils or snowdrops at all, and only a few crocuses. The grape hyacinths are great. What should I do with the bulbs? Can they be saved? They may be planted too shallow, or are they overcrowded as I now have many other things in the beds. My garden is still very new and trying to learn how to manage it.

Fairygirl · April 2023

Hi @katjohnston5 - are they in pots or in the ground?

katjohnston5 · April 2023

@Fairygirl most are in the ground- they’re raised build beds, and some in pots. None in the pots have flowered.

Fairygirl · April 2023

Ok. There's various reasons for it happening.

Snowdrops tend to need very different conditions from tulips, for example. Damper soil, and shadier sites, although they can manage brighter, sunnier spots if the soil's right.
Tulip need quite specific conditions in order to return reliably. They all need decent sun and well drained soil, but many of them won't come back year in year out. The species or botanical ones will and will multiply. Some varieties of the more usual tulips will return reasonably well, but they need some food while dying back, to help them build for the following year.
Crocus are usually fairly reliable, unless they get eaten by squirrels [quite common] or dry out.
Daffs can become congested and come up blind, but as they've only been in a short while, that's unlikely. However, if they get dried out, or the opposite - waterlogged, they'll succumb. That happens more often in pots, and this winter has caused some to get frozen after wet weather, so that's quite common. I've lost quite a few this year.

Anything in a pot needs some maintenance, and some food to to build the bulbs up for the following year. In raised beds, it depends on the soil mix and the climate, as some will be too dry and some will be too wet depending on what's planted. If there's been too many in one spot, some will fail, and things like the Muscari will get the upper hand.

katjohnston5 · April 2023

@Fairygirl that’s incredibly helpful thank you ever so much! I suspect the hot dry summer and wet March has had its impact. Perhaps a silly question but - what type of food would you recommend for the tulips?

Fairygirl · April 2023

I just use anything - some of the granular foods are good because you can then tuck the pots away somewhere and forget about them. Or - tomato food if you want to do a liquid feed. If you have other plants that benefit from that - clematis or similar, it helps to do them at the same time, so it just depends what suits you best. Just make sure the tulips don't completely dry out if you get long dry spells where you are

The difficulty with tulips in pots is keeping them drier through winter weather, but getting them enough moisture as they come into growth. Bit of a balancing act with them. This winter ,the weather affected many of my potted ones though - it was too big a swing from one thing to another. That's how it goes sometimes.
Not a silly question either - if you don't know, you don't know, so it's always better to ask.

The other thing I should have said earlier is - most bulbs are better planted slightly deeper than too shallow. A bulb that's too shallow can often be less likely to flower

rowlandscastle444 · April 2023

Many of our irises are coming up blind this year. More than 15 years in the ground, clearly liking their location. The only thing that has changed in the past year, is the removal of nearby gooseberry bushes.

I'm going to remove the irises after the flowering of the few bulbs that have actually produced something. Then chard goes in.

Blind bulbs

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