Replanting Your Easter Bulb Flowers

With the Easter season now over, my home has become a literal graveyard of shriveled tulips (my all-time favorite spring flower). But just because Easter is over, doesn’t mean I am going to throw out all those tulips!

Most people would take their dead potted Easter flowers and throw them in the trash, but there is still life in them yet! Bulb plants, including tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocus, and iris, are hardy perennial plants that will keep returning every year in the garden.

Here’s how to transfer bulb plants from the pot to the garden:

1. Leave the plant in the pot until the flowers die.
2. Keep watering the plants and place them in direct sunlight to keep the plant photosynthesizing until all of the foliage dies. Photosynthesis is retained in the foliage of the plant after the flowers have finished blooming. The foliage of the plant shrivels, turns brown, and eventually disappears because the bulb is absorbing all of the nutrition from photosynthesis for the next years of flowering.
3. Once all of the vegetation of the plant has disintegrated, dig a 7-8 inch deep hole in organic rich soil outside in a sunny location.
4. Add a chemical fertilizer, phosphate, or bonemeal (necessary for tulips and hyacinths) to the base of the hole and place the bulb in the hole compactly so that there are no air pockets.
5. Next, cover the bulb with soil.
6. Water
7. Wait until next spring for bulb flowers to bloom! (Lilies may actually bloom again in late summer!)

Note: If stems stick out of the ground after being covered with soil, cut them down to the ground.

First step: Get supplies! Here is a list of local businesses where you can buy the supplies you need to get started: