Growing Daffodils
To begin with their scientific name is Narcissus. And yes, they were named after Narcissus, that poor, long-suffering lover of his own image.
Along with tulips, hyacinths and crocus, these bulbs are the mainstays of the spring-bulb color explosion.
It is pretty easy to understand why they are so popular: they are hardy, pest free, disease free, naturalize well, live for years with no work, multiply if left alone, and come in a wide variety of flower colors, heights, sizes and flower shapes.
You can grow them in the garden, in containers or force them indoors.
Daffodil Pictures
This is a video of the different classes of daffodils you can grow in your garden.
Starting, Planting and Transplanting
You can even start them yourself from seed.
You can transplant daffodils if they get "in the wrong place".
Planting Daffodils - the two main rules to remember about planting these bulbs are described right here.
Doug's garden and what I'm doing with these bulbs. I'll continue to update this page as the adventure continues.
Poisonous Bulbs
Recommended Varieties
If
you’re counting, you’ll find the experts think there is somewhere
around 26 species of wild narcissus. Now that depends of course on
which expert you’re talking to because they don’t all agree on the
divisions between plants. What we do know is that our garden narcissus
have been hybridized for so long their specific parentage is almost
impossible to determine.
The divisions right now are:
* Trumpet narcissi including the old fashioned ‘King Alfred’
* Narcissus large-cupped
* Small cupped narcissi
* Split-corona narcissi
* Triandrus narcissi
* Cyclamineus narcissi
* Narcissus jonquilla
* Tazetta narcissi
* Poeticus narcissi
* Narcissus bulbocodium
* Narcissus canaliculatus
* Narcissus lobularis
* Narcissus nanus
* Narcissus odorus
* Double narcissi
Growing Tips
And no matter what kind you want to force into early bloom, I'll assume you know how to put it into the pot (pointy end up) cover it with dirt (leave the neck uncovered) but you don't know about pre-chilling requirements.
Here's the scoop on forcing daffodil bulbs and their requirements.
Here's two tips on moving bulbs and reblooming care.
This bulb comes in a wide variety of colors, ranging from the traditional yellow through white, orange-reds, oranges and salmon-pinks. You’ll also see different colors between the corona (the trumpet or cup shape) and the perianth (the petals)
All are quite hardy, to at least minus 10Cº, with the exception of the Tazetta species.
Plant
according to the size of the bulb and full
instructions for planting are here
This buib improves every spring in the garden landscape but sometimes you do have to do some maintenance to keep them happy.
You can plant them in containers, in natural settings, in formal settings, in rock gardens, you can use them as cut flowers if you can stand to take them out of your garden and you can easily force them for really early spring color.
This is the easiest bulb to grow and succeed with. If you can’t grow this bulb, I’d recommend you try silk. (Well, clay soils will kill them because they do need good drainage.)
Questions and Answers
Need to Ask a Question About Daffodils
If you have a question about growing daffodils that's not covered in the website, this is the place to ask it.
Please be as specific as you can.
Understand that I'm one writer trying to help folks out (not some big company) and I simply can't answer every question I get. Please check out the regional forums where there are a lot of other gardeners willing to help you out. (see navigation bar)
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What Other Visitors Have Asked About Daffodils
Click below to see what other gardeners have asked about daffodils
moving daffodils to a different spot in spring
Hi, I would like to move my tulip and daffodil bulbs to a different part of my garden, can this be done in May?
Thanks; Lee.
Doug says you can move ...
Daffodil transplanting and leaf management- whipper snipper? 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 ...
Lift hyacinths to plant again? If I want to replant hyacinths which were outside this season to another outdoor location, when should I lift them and how should I store them until replanting ...
Planting bulbs or grown plant? When and what is best to plant the daffodil bulb or full grown plant at this time of the season? I am planting them in soil 10- 15 blocks from the ocean ...
Daffodil maintenance with no flowering Our daffodils were all leaves (plentiful) this year. No flowers. Does that mean the leaves were removed too early last year? Should we dig up the bulbs,...
how many bulbs to plant We just trimmed our daffodil leaves all the way down and then dug up the bulbs since we are redoing our entire flower bed. I wasn't sure if I should replant ...
Daffodils cut too soon I made the mistake of cutting my daffodils to the ground after they bloomed last year. Therefore I only got two blooms. If I let them go until the leaves ...
maintenence after blooming
Once the flowers are done blooming, do I cut the plant back to the ground surface or just remove the blooms?
Doug says remove the spent blooms by ...
daffodill bulbs sprouted early in the fall I planted daffodil bulbs last fall & during an unseasonably warm November the tips began to emerge about an inch above the soil. Now it's May & although ...
No blooms after long winter I, too, am having the problem of lots of wonderful green leaves, but no blooms on my daffodils or tulips. I read your response to the Atlanta post, but ...
Bulb storage after growing indoors
How can I store bulbs that have been grown indoors so that I can plant them in the garden for next year?
Doug says - why store them? Plant them outside ...
no blooms for 2 years straight
First year we lived there had plenty of blooms, next year 2, last 2 years zero blooms. Big healthy greens but no blooms. Why
Doug says - see the post ...
Daffodils leaf but there is no bloom here in Atlanta Why do some daffodil bulbs bloom and others do not. Thes bulbs were all planted at the same time (50 bulbs) and only three have shown flowers. I live in ...
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