I know you don't trim the leaves from tulips until they die but what about the stem?

Question

I know you don't trim the leaves from tulips until they die but what about the stem?

Answer 1

I just cut mine and I waited until the stalk or stems looked brown and dried out and cut them even with the ground.  I've been doing it for 10 years and they come up every spring.

Answer 2

I use the stem to wrap the leaves in a nice tidy bunch.  Fold the leaves in half and use the stem to loop around to hold in place.  It looks a little better than having wilted leaves all over the flower bed.

Answer 3

And you're right, leave the leaves to nourish the bulb..

Semi constant gardner is right!  Leave the stem..I just googled it...learn something new every day..will now do just that!...Thanks, Semi constant gardner!

Answer 4

As you probably know, the leaves stay on in order to manufacture nutrition for the bulb underground. Accordingly, the stem needs to stay intact to ensure that the nutrients make it to the bulb. I wait until the entire plant yellows before trimming it down.

Answer 5

Cut them off. Tulips a pretty hardy and even if you do cut the leaves by accident they will come back next season.