My humble observations

  Like many others who live down south (I’m in South Carolina), we can plant daffodil bulbs much later in the season.  Although this is not optimum for daffodil performance, I have discovered over many years due to my own procrastination that daffodils can be planted here as late as February and still do well. This comes with a caveat however; the remainder of the spring needs to be fairly cold.  Once planted, they will bloom much later in the spring the first year, but after that, rebound to their more normal bloom time.  Planted later than February however, they usually suffer and may take another year or two to rebound. 

  Secondly, someone asked previously what were some methods to salvage and save a cut bulb.  During my years of inept digging I have cut, sliced, diced, and hacked my way through a good many daffodils.  We’ve all had that sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs when we’ve dug a clump up, only to reveal several bulbs remaining in the hole, raw, white tissue exposed, sliced as if by someone wielding a Ginsu steak knife!  Many times I have been able to salvage these by leaving them in the sun for several days, even as long as two weeks.  This doesn’t always work and even then it usually takes a couple of years before these bulbs can bounce back.

  Thirdly, due to my procrastination, I just planted quite a few bulbs this past week.  Although daffodils are my favorite garden flower, I hadn’t really been motivated to plant or maintain those I have because of theft.  Last spring I caught several individuals stealing my daffodils.  Apparently, they had been doing so for a number of years.  I was quite shocked and disheartened, because many of them had been given to me by the wonderful, late daffodil ambassador, Eve Robertson.  So those I ordered through the mail languished in the living room until last week.  I bring this up because late last spring, as soon as the foliage began to brown, I also dug a clump of the historic Butter and Eggs that needed to be moved.  I placed them in a basket to dry and left them in the garage and promptly forgot to plant them. I planted these old historic bulbs last week as well.  I mention this because I noticed that none, I repeat none of the daffodil bulbs I had in the garage had perished.  I don’t know if this may be due to these historic bulbs perhaps being more hardy than the ones I had purchased languishing in the living room, or if maybe because they were exposed to the humidity and air outdoors, they lived longer.  Either way, several of those in the living room had perished and now I wonder if the low humidity due to the heat- pump precipitated their demise.  If anyone has an observation regarding this last point I would like to hear from you.

  Finally, for those of you who may have a few bulbs yet to be planted, either due to frozen soil up north, or being just plain tired of planting bulbs, send them to me.  Ha!  I never met a daffodil I didn’t like!  I know many of you with good intentions just stay too busy to plant those bulbs you dug last year.  Simply place them in a box and address to me!  I will be glad to pay for shipping!  Ha!  I still have time to get them in the ground down here for you!

Sincerely,

Waymon