SPRING bulbs are the first signs of life in most gardens. When treated properly after flowering, most will reward you with a good display next year.

Whether you’re growing bulbs in the grass, a border or pots it helps to understand how most of them work to get best results.

A bulb’s roots grow from its basal plate on top of which layers of scale leaves surround an apical bud which produces foliage or a flower stem. Once the bulb has finished flowering, the scale leaves store the nutrients needed for next season’s growth and flowering. They get this food from photosynthesis by the leaves and stems.

So, when growing daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops or other bulbs on a bank or in the lawn, just leave them to recharge their bulbs and die back naturally after flowering. This takes around six weeks and means mowing round – not through – the clumps.

I have a fine line of daffs bordering one side of my polytunnel. Sadly, the docks lurking between the bulbs are surging into growth, blissfully unmolested. I'm too busy to start weeding round my daffodils and can’t mow the area, but I get my revenge in June when the daffodil leaves have finally withered and the mower can chomp through the weeds.

Daffodil leaves lead a charmed life as they contain tiny, sharp crystals that repel four-legged herbivores and hungry molluscs. All the care these plants need is neglect. Like every other plant, after flowering they direct their resources to developing good seeds, but if you remove seeds by deadheading they’ll expend their energies on their bulbs instead. Gardeners are sometimes advised to remove flower stalks as well as spent flowers, but research has shown that stem photosynthesis is twice as efficient as a single leaf.

I doubt if even Wordsworth would deadhead all his beloved daffodils, however tatty the faded flowers, but am sure he would tackle a select group of specimens in a bed.

When narcissus leaves start to flop on to their neighbours, resist the urge to cut back their yellowing vegetation, even if the leaves have turned into a slimy heap after a spell of wet weather. Tying the leaves in knots is just as bad as cutting them off as there’s no way they could photosynthesise properly, so prevent a mess by corralling the foliage with a low twiggy fence to keep the leaves compact and upright.

Though much smaller, clumps of grape hyacinth vegetation persist well into the summer, but don’t get in the way when draped over a low curtain of twigs. And when the yellow, slug-nibbled leaves of scillas look unappealing, tuck them behind their neighbours.

The fine leaves of crocuses die back unobtrusively as do chionodoxa’s two little leaves. Snowdrops in beds are often under shrubs where hardly anything else grows and can be left to their own devices.

Spring bulbs grown in containers brighten up the patio and choice little specimens are an asset to any windowsill or low wall. But, once the flowers are over, you’ll want new occupants for your planters. You can simply howk out the bulbs and invest in a new batch in the autumn or take some trouble and treat them as perennials.

Carefully tip out the plants and plant in a vacant piece of ground to let them die back naturally. Keep them moist and weed-free, feeding with blood fish and bone or a liquid tomato fertiliser. When the foliage is dead and dry, dig up and cut off all but 1cm of the dead vegetation. Dry off the bulbs, remove any soil from the roots and store in a cool, dark shed until autumn then plant as normal. But be warned. Second and subsequent flowering may not be as good, so keep these bulbs for less prominent places.