Hello, I am a new member. I purchased many pots of narcissus, in active growth and flowering, at a bulb sale of bulbs used in a bulb show in March. The foliage has now dried up and the bulbs are still in the pots. I would like to leave them there and plant them in the fall. Should I keep them dry or moist? Any other advice?
Thank you!
Ivor:
We grow in pots almost exclusively. We leave the pots in full sun during the post-bloom period until after the foliage has yellowed and dried. We taper off watering as the foliage begins to yellow. When it is quite dry we clean off the dry leaves and move the pots into the shade to help keep the soil temperature down during our hot summer months. The pots are black plastic. Shading them during the dry season keeps the soil temperatures at least 10 degrees cooler in the summer afternoons. So no, I don’t believe you are wasting your time to have a sunny period for rebuilding the bulb, but if your climate has high summer temperatures, you may benefit from shading during dormancy. The few pots that receive part-day shade during the post-bloom period seem to grow less vigorously than the ones in full sun.
Melissa