Once your bulbs have produced beautiful flowers, these flowers will begin to fade and die, which is the normal process.  These dead flowers are called dead heads and to encourage the plants to bloom again, they need to be removed.  The way this works is that the plant expends energy to produce blooms.  When there are dead blooms, the plant is using far too much energy on something dead rather than creating new blooms.  If the bulbs were naturalizing, then you would not need to go through the deadheading process.

The foliage of the plant should be left alone, which will allow the plant to recharge, preparing for the following spring.  The challenge is that most gardeners have a hard time resisting plucking these ugly leaves off but resist temptation if you want a healthier and better-looking plant in the spring.

Every part of a flower has a specific purpose.  For example, the leaves are essential in that they take the suns energy and use it to transform elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and potassium into food, needed for the plant to produce flowers.  Just remember, cutting, twisting, folding, or damaging the bulb foliage in any way should be avoided.

However, once the leaves of the bulb will wither and turn yellow, which typically occurs in six weeks, they should be cut off.  If you want to hide or camouflage any ripening foliage, you can always plant bulbs in between perennials.  Great choices would include peonies, forget-me-nots, daylilies, or hostas.

For gardeners that hate dealing with these ugly leaves, you can start treating the bulbs more like annuals.  In this case, you can pull the leaves out after the plant has flowered.  This will prepare the plant for the summer’s blooms.  Finally, by planting a variety of bulbs, you can ensure you have blooms throughout the year.  Try to choose bulbs that bloom in the spring and mix them with bulbs that will bloom in the summer.  This way, your garden will be full and gorgeous for much longer.