How to Cut Plant Bulbs

Plant bulbs are hardy, easy to grow and, best of all, they multiply over time. Bulbs can be divided and shared with friends or planted in new areas of the yard. In addition, many flower bulbs must be divided, or they will stop blooming. The most commonly cut or divided bulbs are flowers such as tulips, daffodils and lilies. While it is fairly easy to cut or separate plant bulbs, it is important to do it properly, or you will end up killing the bulb rather than dividing it.

Things You'll Need

• Spade or trowel

Instructions

1. Wait until the leaves and stem of the flower have withered and turned brown before you dig up the bulb. This means that the bulb has absorbed all the nutrients from the spent flower and has gone into a dormant state.

2. Dig up the bulbs. Do this carefully, so you don't accidentally slice into a bulb in the wrong spot. Shake off the excess dirt, and lay the bulbs out in a cool, dry area.

3. Pull any small bulbs away from the tangle of roots and set them aside. There may be several, or there may be just one smaller bulb growing on the bigger bulb, depending on the type of bulb. Use your hands to pull the bulbs apart; there is no need to use any tools to actually cut them apart. This is also true for corms, which look very much like bulbs.

4. Check to see if your bulb is actually a tuber. The term "bulb" is used to cover many types of plants, and some of them will not have a traditional teardrop bulb shape. Tubers and rhizomes are large, thick horizontal roots. Rhizomes have obvious breaking points, or "dents." Break or cut a rhizome at these points. Tubers do not have obvious divisions, but you will be able to see where new growth is occurring. Cut a tuber into two or three equal parts, making sure each part has new growth coming from it.

5. Replant the new bulbs just as you did the original bulbs. Cutting, or dividing, bulbs should be done either in the spring or fall, depending on your particular plant. If you are unsure of when to cut your specific plant bulbs, check with your local garden center. Spring flowering bulbs generally should be divided in September and October, while fall flowering bulbs should be divided in the spring.

Tips & Warnings

• If you aren't sure whether your flower bulbs need to be divided, watch the plant. If the blooms are sparse, there is probably overcrowding occurring, and you need to dig up the bulbs and cut them apart.

• If you cut a bulb in half, straight down from tip to base, you will kill it. On the other hand, doing so is a wonderful way to see the inner workings of a plant bulb, which makes a great gardening lesson for children.

References

• How to divide bulbs properly

Resources

• All about bulbs