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Five Steps to Dazzling Daffodils

16.04.09 | Ilona Erwin | 6 Comments


Daffodils,Narcissus species, are quite easy to grow, but there are a few things you can do to insure that the bulbs you plant produce a dazzling display of spring bloom year after year.

  1. Be sure you plant your bulbs in a place that gets enough sunshine. Daffodils like at least part sun to bloom well. If they have orange or pink colorations they prefer part day sunshine to full sun, but they will not bloom if they are planted in too much shade. If your daffodil bulbs aren’t blooming this is the first factor to check.
  2. Daffodils are wonderful multipliers under normal circumstances, which means you easily will have plenty of flowers, but it can also mean they get crowded and need division. If you have a plethora of leaves and few flowers, it is time to dig up your stand of bulbs to divide and replant. You can replant right away or dry the bulbs and store them over summer (my mom used those mesh bags they sell apples or oranges in) and plant in the fall.
  3. Being long lived plants, they can use some feeding. I like to plant the bulbs initially with some handfuls of bone meal dug into the bottom of the planting hole or trench. Every so often it is a good idea to give them a 5-10-10 formulation of fertilizer. The initial number is small because you don’t want large amounts of nitrogen- that would produce more leaves; typically bone meal has a high middle number (phosphorus) which promotes rooting and setting flower buds.
  4. Leave the leaves! This is one of the most important things to remember with plants that grow from bulbs. The bulbs are food storage units, but the way they get fat and sassy is through the photosynthesis action of the leaves. If you cut those off prematurely that limits the amount of nutrients available for the flowering for the next year. Allow the leaves to yellow and wither before removing them. This also means that bulbs growing in a naturalized manner in the lawn should be allowed to grow until well into June. A little mussiness is the price we pay for beautiful spring pictures.
  5. Like most bulbs, daffodils like moisture but good drainage: don’t let them sit in water to rot. If you have heavy clay soil, some recommend sand or Perlite spaded into the bed, but I have grown them in clay soils with no diminishment of their health or blooming (attributing it to that handful or so of bone meal). Just make sure they aren’t planted in wet spots.

Instant Harmony

Follow these five steps and I’m sure you will have a brilliant show of daffodils each year. It is fun to grow the different types with their varied forms and close harmonies of color -daffodils don’t clash!

Deter Rodent Pests

Another thing going for them is that they are poisonous, a real plus when you want something to deter rodents, which are bulb eating machines.

Interplanting And Overplanting

Try interplanting daffodils with crocus, with daffodils 6-8 inches deep and a layer of crocus overplanted about 3-4 inches deep. The scent of the daffodils discourages pests from eating the crocus.

On Ilona’s Garden

For more on Daffodils and other spring blooming bulbs: Daffodils Throughout Spring | Tulips and Daffodils | The Flower Of March

 

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About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John at JWLW says

    April 16, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Good Post Ilona:

    John was here again. Nice job good information, easy to follow, not to complicated or technical.

    See ya again,
    John

  2. johanna_lea says

    April 16, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    down here, we have a type of common jonquils naturalized on the roadsides- one of the earliest
    signs of spring, such a heady perfume free for the picking.
    i know we have many of the older varieties growing down here;when i see them offered in catalogs,i almost never see the ones from my grand-parents farm and gardens,or my 100yr.old landscaping here.
    it seems like southern gardeners favor the jonquils, all sweet-smelling like the tiniest golden ones with slender onion-like-leaves,and the lovely poet’s narcissus,or ‘phoenix-eye’ with just a touch of red trim on the ruffle.i have an odd double flowered group of these beside my front steps.
    georgis has smell-good plants blooming practically all year!
    we are a decadent laidback
    bunch who enjoy the fragrant breezes january til xmas!

  3. Ilona says

    April 16, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    I am so glad you give me feedback- I am attempting the problogger exercises to improve myself 🙂 (just behind, as usual)

    i see you’ve started posting again-yippee! I love love love your bluebird post + pic (those are one of my favorite birds)

  4. johanna_lea says

    April 16, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    forgot to say how they keep the fading leaves from the tidy grass.
    my grandmother would wind/knot several strong leaves around the plants. it made a tidy bundle, as mowing season began. last year,i
    saw large groups of naturalized daffodils around a lawn under big trees…each one done up with green twine…

  5. Teresa R says

    April 17, 2009 at 12:41 am

    Great post! I’ll share the link on Twitter and Facebook…thanks!

  6. johanna_lea says

    April 17, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    every time i wrote jonquil, i meant
    narcissus %D

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I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

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