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We recently moved to an area where bulbed flowers do well, and lo and behold daffodils started popping up in my flower beds. They are beautiful but now the flowers are beginning to wilt and die, can I trim them back? My landlady says no but my mother in law says yes. Mother in law lives in the area and says she has always trimmed hers back after they bloom, but I don't want to kill something that my LL planted.
No, leave them alone. Some people tie them up into tidy little bunches, but I think it looks better to just let them be and plant a few other flowers nearby to distract the eye. Spring phlox works well, IMO. After 5-6 weeks you can trim them, but right now those leaves are busy feeding the bulbs for next year.
I cut the dead flowers off -- the thinking is to prevent the plant from spending energy in setting seed -- but leave the leaves alone so that they can make food and store it in the bulb.
cut the FLOWER stalks only...
dont cut the leaves, but the wilted flower stalks can be cut back.
how do you think daffodil farmers get flowers for the market, they dont start with new bulbs every year, simply cut each flower stalk carefully below the leaf line leaving the daffodil leaves intact.
cut the FLOWER stalks only...
dont cut the leaves, but the wilted flower stalks can be cut back.
how do you think daffodil farmers get flowers for the market, they dont start with new bulbs every year, simply cut each flower stalk carefully below the leaf line leaving the daffodil leaves intact.
T the OP: As several people have said do not cut back the whole plant right now. The green parts will be making the sugars that are stored in the bulb for next years growth, including the flower.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kinkytoes
Does anyone have experience with daffodils in full sun?
What do you need to know? Daffodils need sun and do fine in full sun. They may bloom and brown on a faster schedule if in very hot full day sun but they will still bloom and grow there. In hotter climates they would probably look better longer in part sun and often it is recommended that they be planted beneath trees so that the branches filter the sun before they get leaves. In colder climates all day sun away from shelter usually is fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita
speaking of Daffodils, we have a million plants and equally as many tulips (well not a million) but almost no blooms. Anyone have any ideas.??
NIta
I covered some of the possibilities in another thread that you posted in. Usually the first thing to consider is how long since the daffodils have been dug up and separated. Over years of growing they begin to add on secondary bulbs (sometimes called bulbettes) that will also make a whole daffodil plant. When they are crowded none of them has the ability to get enough nutrients to make flowers and you get lots of green leaves. The cure for that is to dig them up at the end of the summer or very beginning of fall and split them apart, replanting them spread further apart or even in whole new beds. Add fertilizer and you should have a good show come next spring.
Tulips are another story, and many are treated as short lived plants. The longest a standard tulip will rebloom is 3 or 4 years before making either smaller or no blooms. Many tulip gardeners replant every year for the best blooms! The exception is a newer version, the perennial tulip or Darwin Hybrid tulip, which seems to go strong for 5 or so years before weakening. I haven't had a chance to try some yet but hope to plant some next fall and test it out.
If you just planted the bulbs for both daffodils and tulips last fall and they did not grow I would suspect they way they were stored or when they were planted as causes for the bloom no show. It is usually the only time you are almost guaranteed a good bloom. If the bulbs have been in a year or two then the biggest single reason for no blooms might be poor nutrient and moisture conditions for the bulbs. Have you used any fertilizer? There are several types of bulb fertilizer out and the traditional bulb grower also uses bone meal.
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