I planted some bulbs last year and they came up and flowered - daffs and tuiips - but they've all died or stopped growing. Looking at the photos, are they dead? Should I dig them up?
This is normal. Once flowering finishes you need to dead head the flower stalks - cut them off low down and then leave the foliage for at least 6 weeks so it can feed the bulb enough energy for it to flower again next year. You need to untie and unfold the leaves so they can photosynthesise. Sprinkling on a handful of fertiliser per square metre also helps - slow release chicken manure pellets or blood, fish and bone or similar.
Most people plant later flowering plants so there is no bare soil where weeds can take hold but also to camouflage the bulb foliage as it goes over. Hardy geraniums are good in most gardens but there are many more plants you could use depending on your soil, location and colour scheme.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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Most people plant later flowering plants so there is no bare soil where weeds can take hold but also to camouflage the bulb foliage as it goes over. Hardy geraniums are good in most gardens but there are many more plants you could use depending on your soil, location and colour scheme.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw