Bulb Information, Growing Daffodils

Suicide Daffodils!

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 Hello Nancy,
                    You are correct, you heard me say it, but I also added that I found it hard to believe, as after talking to people who have eaten daffodil bulbs, there are not many! I know of one. It is not a quick death but slow and painful, so not recommended for suicide!
Then Brent ( Brent an Becky Bulbs) walked in a little later and said the same thing!
It's always nice to know someone was listening!
 
Ian
 
PS. After doing some research on this on my return I found very little information, but someone asked a about animal deaths from eating daffodils and it seems it is not an uncommon occurrence with our bovine friends!
Any Vets care to comment?
it.

2 comments for “Suicide Daffodils!”

  1. Am not a vet, but would like to register a few observations on toxicity of daffodils to domestic animals. 

     

    In years of wandering fields and mountainsides in Spain, Andorra and Southern France, I have seen many areas  formerly thick with daffodils which have been chewed to a 1” stubble with goats , sheep, cows or horses happily grazing in the  vicinity.  Never have I seen a sick or dying animal in the area.  There were no bodies or skeletons either.  Have these animals developed a resistance to daffodil toxicity?

     

    In many high grazing areas of the Pyrenees, N. alpestris may only be found in areas protected by thorny shrubs or prickly vines – little cages which keep the sheep away.  When horses and cows began grazing in the Guadarrama Mountains north of Madrid, N. rupicola disappeared from the roadsides.  Feral pigs have unearthed and apparently eaten bulbs of N. hedraeanthus in Cazorla National Park but no dead pigs have been seen.

     

    If these animals only have access to daffodil areas for a season or two, the bulbs do recover and eventually flowers appear once more.  I imagine that many sites in grazing country which look as those they should be prime locations for daffodils were probably blanketed with flowers before the grazers came in.  A striking example is near Gavarnie in the French Pyrenees where a single field is surrounded  by a high fence.  Inside one can see a sold mass of N. abscissus.  Not a single daffodil can be seen outside the enclosure.

     

     


  2. G’day All,
    It is a pleasant 30c here in Australia and will rise to over 40 in the next couple of hours. I have already spent 2 hours floating around in the swimming pool, now for some breakfast of toad in the hole( fried egg in toast cooked on the BBQ) grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and sausages washed down with a champagne coctail.
    Happy New Year to All.
    I have an incident where sheep died in my paddocks I owned the daffodil plants but not the sheep.
    From Brenda Down under.

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