Lifting is the careful digging of bulbs after their flower displays have faded, they’ve stored nutrients for the next growth cycle and all their foliage has died. Lifting bulbs is necessary for those with gardens in areas where climate conditions – such as cold, heat, humidity and precipitation – would cause their bulbs to experience dampness when dormant, be subjected to freezing, or suffer dehydration or damage due to overly high soil temperatures. By comparison, dividing rhizomes or separating bulbs renews and propagates new plants when the originals become too crowded.

It’s best to use a garden fork to lift bulbs, lifting them before their stems and leaves have dried and detached. Beginning your dig a short distance away from the bulbs, plunge the fork vertically into the soil and lever the handle down to lift the soil and bulbs. Carefully separate the bulbs from the soil as you go, moving across the bed.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Bulbs like daffodils and tulips naturally produce new bulbs (or “offsets”) that can be detached, cured, stored and planted the following season.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Bulbs can remain in the soil from season to season in those areas that mimic their natural growing conditions. Mediterranean climates – like those found along the Pacific Coast – are hospitable to many of the spring bulbs that originated in southern Europe and the Middle East. Southern California, the Gulf states, Florida, Hawaii and other mild-winter, semitropical climates support inground cultivation of evergreen varieties and summer bulbs that would be lifted in cold-winter climates.

Lift spring bulbs after dormancy’s onset to retain their health and vitality. As foliage yellows, mark its position to aid location after it withers and is removed during routine garden care. Dig carefully from the outside margins of the bed with a garden fork, loosening the soil from deep below the bulbs and revealing them. Shake them to remove any clinging soil, then lay them on a tarp or newspaper to dry in a warm, dry spot sheltered from the sun.

Most bulbs will have produced offsets, bulblets, bulbils, new tubers or root divisions. New plants from small bulblets and bulbils require several seasons before you’ll obtain blooms. Discard the small bulbils and bulblets unless you plan to grow them in nursery rows. Carefully clean and separate larger offsets and tubers from the parent bulbs – they can be planted the following season and may bloom then or in the following year.

Plants with rhizomatous and tuberous roots form dense, clumping colonies that periodically require division, usually several years after planting. Bulbs in the center of these colonies lack sufficient water and nutrients; they tend to be stunted, have diminished blooms, or fail to bloom entirely. To renew their vigor and obtain new plants for other areas of your garden, they should be divided after lifting.

Some bulbs lack onionskin-like tunics and can be subject to dehydration unless they’re protected and given moisture after lifting. Store them in breathable containers packed in slightly moist peat moss.

To properly lift bulbs from the ground after they’ve completed their growth cycle for the year, just take the simple steps shown in the following pictures and described in their captions. (You’ll need a garden fork, a fabric tarp or piece of burlap, and a warm sunny day.)