How to Grow Bulbs from Offsets

You don’t always have to buy new bulbs if you want to grow new plants. Many bulbs reproduce by forming offsets—daughter bulbs that grow from the basal plate of the original bulb. Over the course of a few years, the offsets grow large and strong enough to flower—and then to produce new offsets themselves. Offsets large enough to produce plants can be divided, or separated, from the original bulb and then replanted to create new plants in your garden.

Why Divide Offsets?

Dividing offsets from your bulbs can help you to:

Increase the number of flowers in your garden: Rather than buy new bulbs, you can fill in your garden easily and inexpensively by dividing your existing bulbs’ offsets.
Improve plant health: Over time, an original bulb may grow into a large clump of offsets, each of which produces its own shoot, flowers, and roots. When there are too many offsets, they begin to compete with each other for the resources in the soil, and the health of the plant (and the flowers that the plants produce) can suffer. Dividing offsets prevents this from happening. When dividing offsets to improve plant health, you can certainly replant the offsets—but if you don’t need any more flowers in your garden, you can just as easily throw them away.

Bulbs with Offsets That Are Easy to Divide

Not all bulbs produce offsets that are easy to divide from the mother bulb, or that perform well once divided. Popular bulbs whose offsets typically do perform well after being divided include:

Alliums
Crocuses
Daffodils
Gladioli
Hyacinths
Lilies
Snowdrops
Tulips

Daffodils and snowdrops produce offsets at a particularly fast rate and generally must be divided every 2–3 years to maintain plant health. Other types of bulbs can be divided less often.

When to Divide Offsets

Most bulbs should be divided after their blooms have faded and their foliage has begun to decline, but before the foliage dies back completely.

How to Divide Offsets

To divide and then replant offsets from bulbs, follow the guidelines below:

Prepare new holes: On the day you plan to divide and transplant the offsets, dig holes for the new offsets. Preparing the holes ahead of time allows the transplanted offsets to spend as little time as possible above ground.
Identify bulbs with offsets: Bulbs with offsets will have more than one stem emerging from the ground. Often, you’ll find clumps of shoots together—a definite sign of offsets.
Dig up a clump of bulbs: Dig carefully around a single clump of bulbs, then lift them free of the ground and clear off remaining dirt.
Pull the offset(s) from the main bulb: Once the bulbs are fully exposed, you’ll see the separate offsets—there may be one or many more than that. Gently pull the offsets that you want to transplant away from the clump of bulbs. It’s generally a good idea to pull away only the largest offsets, since they’ll produce blooms more quickly.
Transplant the offset: Plant the offset immediately in one of the holes you’ve already prepared, and cover it as you would when planting a store-bought bulb.
Repeat: Repeat the process for each offset that you want to transplant. If you’re dividing and transplanting many offsets from a single clump, it’s a good idea to keep the original bulb moist and protected by covering it with damp newspaper or moistened burlap.
Replant the original bulb or clump: Return the original bulb to its hole and re-cover it with soil.

Again, if you’re removing offsets simply to thin out your bulbs and improve the health of individual plants, you can just throw the offsets away rather than transplant them.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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How to Care for Bulbs

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