Daffodil transplanting and leaf management- whipper snipper?

by Willy
(WV)

I have access to possibly thousands of daffodil bulbs to transplant and have studied all on these pages. I have seen gardeners fold over plants and wrap around rubber bands. I thought these were on daffodils (maybe tulips). and also I wondered about why to cut the stem of the daffodil at all. Does it need to be done by hand or could someone just use a weedeater on a hillside of dead daffodils? Sorry if these seem like goofy questions.


Doug says. If you have thousands to pick from and no time problems, I'd do it as soon as the leaves yellow and whither. The bulb is resting/dormant and moving it will be easiest. And you can find the bulbs. If you let it go till fall, the foliage may have disappeared and you won't know where the bulbs are. Doing it during or prior to bloom is possible but not a desired timing.

Cutting back the stems. Normally gardeners do this to stop the plant from setting seed and to neaten up the garden. The belief is that cutting off the flower stem makes the bulb itself healthier. I have no idea if this is true (from research) but it sounds good.

Rubber bands. Gardeners who want to get the bulb leaves out of the way rubber band or tie them up so they can plant annuals in the space formerly occupied by the leaves. This only reduces the photosynthesis ability (energy producing) of the leaves. It's a lot of work from my point of view and with a large naturalized bulb garden, way too much work. Forget it.

Cutting back with a whipper snipper? Hmm, if the bulbs were naturalized, I wouldn't bother doing it at all. I'd leave them to develop seeds and hopefully produce a few new plants along the way. In a garden, I think you're going to find the whipper snipper is too big a tool and you're going to have a lot of leaf damage along with the stem cutbacks. Remember you want healthy leaves to replenish the bulbs. So forget the whipper snipper in the garden.

Hope that helps. And no question is a dumb one if you really don't know.