Tulips After Flowering: Lift, Store or Replace? Monty's Pot Bulb Guide

Monty tackles the big tulip question: what to do after flowering. He lifts pots, handles bulbs right, and shares money-saving planting and timely veg jobs. Answering a letter from Nick Shearham, Monty shows exactly how he deals with tulips in pots once the display fades. He snaps off seed heads, lifts the bulbs, and lets the foliage die back naturally in a dry, well-lit place so the new bulbs can feed up. He explains why pot displays rarely return as strongly the next year, why buying fresh large-grade bulbs is often best for pots, and how to store and line out saved bulbs to build your own stock or use as cut flowers. Watch him handle rococo parrot tulips, clean bulbs for autumn, and weigh up when to keep and when to replace. Carol celebrates a dazzling rhododendron valley in Dorset at the Digby family’s Rinton House and Minton Gardens. With head gardener Ray Abraham, she explores rarities linked to plant hunters Joseph Hooker and George Forrest, green sand soil by Lady Abingdon’s Well, and a hybridising demo using stored anthers to cross with Barbatum for future red tones. Henry Digby reflects on preserving treasures like Rhododendron hippothoides for generations to come. Back in the cottage garden, Monty stretches the budget with herbaceous perennials: buy smaller plants in groups, and divide big, pot-bound ones. He groups Campanula lactifluoro-pritchardes variety and splits an aster to make four or five plants, turning a sub-£7 purchase into a dramatic clump worth many times more next year. Seasonal jobs include supporting top-heavy broad beans, lifting and dividing primroses, and cutting back Lisimachia ciliata Firecracker to open up space and stagger bloom time. Allium Purple Sensation shines even on heavy clay. He pots on sweetcorn into a rich, bark-based compost mixed with sieved garden compost, grit and leaf mould, holding off planting out until nights warm. In London’s Open Garden Squares, we peek behind the gates at Park Square and the Garden Barge Square on the Thames, where roses bloom early, medlars crop on an orchard barge and bees ride the tides, plus the Lillington and Longmore estate’s themed communal gardens. Finally, he thins carrots to a finger’s width and beats carrot fly with allium companions like shallots, barriers about 4 ft high, and evening thinning. If you can smell a carrot, so can a carrot fly. #GardenersWorld #Tulips #Rhododendrons #Perennials #VegetableGarden #Carrots #Sweetcorn #LondonGardens