# Tulips on the organ...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 2, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554 "2003-05-02T04:04:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/1 "2003-05-02T04:04:37Z")
When is the best time to remove tulip bulbs?
I have tulips growing in my front lawn, that I just don’t want anymore. Last summer, after they blooms went away, I thought I pulled them all out. I replanted them in the back yard, and they seem to have taken well. However, I am still getting them in the front yard. Is there a best time to remove them? Are there any other steps that need to be taken?
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/2 "2003-05-02T04:47:08Z")
I need to get some for _my_ organ. (No, really, I have an organ – its name is Wurlitzer)
We always dug them up in wintertime. Be sure you get all of the bulb out, lest you may have some reminders of growths past; you can’t just pull away. It’s best to dig with a trowel and some knowledge of exactly where you planted it.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/3 "2003-05-02T07:57:07Z")
The best time to dig up the bulbs is during the hottest, driest part of summer; they will be completely dormant at this time; store them in a cool dry place until Autumn and replant them where you want them; many people make the mistake of planting them too shallowly and they do not repeat-flower as a result - as a general rule, bulbs/corms etc should be planted at such a depth that they are covered with soil to three times the height of the bulb itself.
A small handfull of bone meal scattered in the bottom of the planting hole will make them grow stronger and muliply faster.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/4 "2003-05-02T07:59:53Z")
NB; the advice above is specific to tulips; some other bulbs/corms (snowdrops, for example) are best moved ‘in the green’. Daffodils are so resilient that they can often be moved successfully even when they are in flower.
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### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/5 "2003-05-02T12:44:42Z")
I envy you people who can grow tulips. Around here, the deers eat them all: flowers and leaves when they have 'em, the bulbs itself in the winter. ☹
I do have hundreds of daffodils to somewhat compensate, but the color range just aint there with daffys.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/6 "2003-05-02T12:49:02Z")
Damn deer. Nothing but rats with antlers.
We have them too. But we have our greyhounds pee on the flower beds in the Spring and that mostly scares them away.
Works on woodchucks, too.
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### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tulips-on-the-organ/172554/7 "2003-05-02T13:12:22Z")
I’m afraid I have no greyhounds. No dogs of any color, in fact.
Would human urine work, d’you think?
(Sheesh. I mean via bucket. I’m not into entertaining the neighborhood THAT much.)