PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Did you snip off the heads off your finished bulbs yet? Once tulips and daffodil flowers are spent, you can just walk along and snap off the top of the stem – that stops the plant from making seeds and sends that energy back down into the bulb. But remember to leave the leaves – it’s not the prettiest part of the process, but as the bulb leaves slowly lose their green color over the coming weeks, the food from that photosynthesis is stored in the bulb to make more pretty flowers next year.

So leave your bulb leaves until they wither to brown and pull away easily. To make things look tidier, just plant some taller annuals in front of and in amongst the bulbs – geraniums, vinca rose or whatever you like. Hardy volunteers are another good idea – like our native verbena ‘Homestead Purple’ which happily reseeds and pops up again each year between the bulbs to distract your eye from the fading foliage with plenty of pretty color.

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio