Coming soon to the garden, finally, will be the fragrance of hyacinths, daffodils and tulips. Although the flowers will be beautiful, the tips of the leaves may be brown. The warm weather in December teased the bulbs’ foliage out of the ground, where the tips were greeted by frigid temperatures, followed by weeks under snow.

The snow insulated the leaves and bulbs from the cold, but the lack of oxygen and sunlight caused many of the tips to turn pale green, yellow or brown.
Some of the pale-green oxygen- and light-deprived foliage of the bulbs will probably green up on its own. The browned tips of the leaves will stay brown. However, this damage will not affect the bulbs’ flowers. As the foliage grows, there will be enough green to process the nutrients necessary to bulk up the bulbs for next year’s blooms.

This is a good time to remind gardeners that the foliage on bulbs is critical to processing the food necessary for flowers next year. Even though the foliage is unattractive once the blooms are gone, the dying leaves must remain attached to the bulb until they turn yellow or brown and fall flat.

Removing the foliage too soon, or braiding or bunching the leaves will disrupt the photosynthesis process, which will reduce or eliminate any chance the bulbs will bloom next year.
Fertilize spring bulbs when they break ground and again right after they finish blooming. Sprinkle an all-purpose granular fertilizer on the soil surface. Always read and follow the label directions of the product you select. Or, dust the soil around the bulbs with a light layer of compost.
Don’t hesitate to cut most spring bulb blooms for indoor arrangements. (Crocus doesn’t do well; its flowers close when not in the sun.) However, cut flower preservatives are not recommended for arrangements with bulbs.
If you are planning to renovate a garden bed that has spring bulbs later this year, mark their territory before removing the foliage. That way you’ll know where the bulbs are when you’re ready to renovate.

Brown-tipped lawn
Other plants may show weather damage, too.
“When the weather was bitterly cold and there was a heavy snow cover, I shoveled a path to my bird feeding station. Now that the snow has melted, I see the grass over the path is a yellowish brown,” wrote reader Frank Almeida. “Do you think this is a permanent situation, or will it green up when the weather turns warm?”
As this reader has discovered, the lawn also may show some brown blades from winter damage. The tips of grass blades were likely damaged by being walked on, but the first mowing will remove the brown.

Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, an Advanced Master Gardener, is a regional director of the Garden Writers Association. Contact her at P.O. Box 20310, Indianapolis, IN 46220-0310; fax (317) 251-8545, or e-mail hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net.

source : www.indystar.com