Two or three weeks ago, the sight of cheery yellow and white daffodils made our hearts leap. Spring, at long last! Now, many of the flower heads are drooping, the blossom has dried up and, in some cases, seed pods have begun to form.

With advance planning, later blooming daffs can extend the spring bulb show. But in the meantime, there's work to be done if you want next spring's flowers to look as lovely as this year's. If possible, cut off faded flowers before seed pods form because the process of producing pods hijacks food stored in the bulb from other parts of the plant.

In my own yard, when I checked a patch of daffs and narcissi after one of last week's damaging rainstorms, I was amazed to see how rapidly plump seed pods had appeared beneath the dried little skirts of dead petals. Quick! Get the pruners!

Happily, some fragrant narcissi, which had begun to bloom well after the daffs, were still in good shape and standing up amid the clump of long, green leaves. Remember never to cut the leaves off until they turn yellow. (With tulips, wait until at least half of each leaf has turned brown before removing it.) The leaves, as long as they remain green, will produce food for the plant's growth next year.

A useful strategy to consider: If you plant spring bulbs among perennials that will grow up and flower later on, the new shoots will cover up the bulbs' dying leaves. Examples of such perennials include hosta, daylilies, garden phlox and ferns. But resist the temptation not to remove the yellow leaves because, if left in place, they can harbor disease.

As a rule, daffodils, crocuses and most other spring bulbs will reproduce and become more beautiful as the years go by, with little input from the gardener. But if they get crowded and start making fewer and/or smaller flowers, dig them up, then divide and replant them. Move them to an extension of the current site or to a new bed.

Plant the largest bulbs in the most visible spots because they'll produce the best flowers. Smaller bulbs can go in a less conspicuous area and remain there for a few years until they mature and produce larger flowers. Then, transplant them to an area where they, too, can take a starring role.

Tulips and hyacinths, however, are exceptions to the rule. Large flowered tulip bulbs create their biggest blossoms the first spring after you plant them. In succeeding years, they'll make more bulbs, but smaller ones that produce smaller flowers.

The best remedy is to dig up the entire clump every year, after the flowers and foliage have died, separate them into groups, by size, and plant them in a spot where you've enriched the soil, putting the biggest bulbs in one area and the smaller ones in another. (If you don't want to change their location, you can remove all the soil from their bed, replace it, then plant them back in the same place.)

Fail to do this chore every year and your tulip and hyacinth bulbs will get overcrowded and use up the goodness in that particular patch of ground.

Now I know why a group of lovely pink and purple tulips I planted in a large ceramic container some years ago has produced fewer and fewer flowers. This spring, only two or three small buds appeared amid the lush green foliage. Lifting and replanting them in a new spot must go on my gardening to-do list a few weeks from now, when the leaves have died.

Whatever you do, avoid leaving tulips in the same bed for more than three years in a row, or diseases like fire blight may strike the bulbs. But, again, wait until the leaves have died before digging up the bulbs. Do so before and your bulbs will be “useless,” my University of Maryland Master Gardener Handbook warns.

Having said that, I've read that if you want to avoid the annual chore of digging up tulips, plant  “species tulips,” which don't need to be moved to keep producing good blossom. Some examples: Tulipa tarda, T. batalinii, T. saxatillis and T. humilis. They make smaller flowers, more like wildflowers, but exist in a variety of shapes, colors and heights.

Another option: Try multi-headed or cluster flowered tulips (also called bouquet tulips). Instead of one flower per stem, these hybrids produce two to five on each stem. I've not planted species tulips or  multi-headed tulips myself, but it might be worth a try for next spring.

Much like daffs, you can camouflage tulips' and hyacinths' fading leaves by planting them in small groups among taller perennial ground-covers such as big-root geranium (geranium macrorrhizum).

An important point, which does not apply this spring because we've had so much rain, but could make or break your flowering bulbs in future years: Make sure they're well watered in early spring. Too little moisture can cause stunted growth. Bulbs need about an inch of water every week. Avoid getting the flowers and leaves wet. Using a soaker hose is a good idea.

Next fall, if you consider planting tulips but fear that squirrels will devour them, surround the tulip bulbs with daffodils, whose taste rodents hate.

A final word on daffs: To avoid having them all fade at approximately the same time, plant varieties that flower at different times in spring. In general, daffs flower for about two weeks. Plant several varieties and you may have them blooming for four to five weeks.

In the meantime, happy gardening!

Laetitia Sands is a master gardener in Dorchester County.