I was recently asked by Email 5 questions about planting from an ADS member. I’m posting the questions and my answers below. It’s hard to answer these questions directly, therefore, I had to sort of explain my method as well as provide an answer to each question. Questions in Black and my answers in Red. Please understand this is how I do it, and that doesn’t mean its the only way to handle and plant bulbs.
Read my article in the spring ADS the Daffodil Journal 2023. It answers a lot of your questions. I will try to answer the questions you asked in the following paragraphs.
How many (of one Variety) do you usually Plant? to Start with, I make beds that are as long as I have space for, up to 50 foot long, and make them 4 feet wide. I use 3/4 inch PVC pipe cut to 18 Inches long to mark the 4 corners of my rectangle beds. No beds longer than that. Afterwards I plant the beds in rows of seven bulb per row 6 inches apart across the width of the bed, with rows 10 inches apart. I use a 5′ board marker 8″ wide to separate the rows of bulbs and to indicate when the start point on each row. This I learned from Marie Bozievich. I use a string on one side of the bed from one end to another on metal rebar posts so I can draw the string tight, to keep the planting straight. On the board I put a black mark on the board at the location of the string, and from there another mark 6 inches apart until I have seven. Doing that math puts the first bulb 6 inches from the string (start point) and the 7th marker is then 6 inches from the other side of the bed. The math works you end up with 6 inches from each side of the bed and you have 7 bulbs planted. As for how many of each Variety do I usually plant. I plant a row of seven of each variety when I have seven to plant. If I have less, I will plant all my bulbs even if the count is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. If I have some really good show winner with more than 7 bulbs, I will plant extra bulbs of this show winner in another section of my garden. The micro climates will quiet often cause the two plantings to bloom at different times and allows me to show that daffodil in more than one show. Actually, I have used this micro climates when I only have, say 4 bulbs on one variety that are particularly good, I’ll plant them in two different locations. That also protects from losing all your bulbs of a show winner, if one area proves to have problems and the bulbs die. Chances are that one planting or another when separated will survive if the other section dies.
Single file or in small groups/clusters? Marie Bozievich planted in single file straight across the width of the beds. She said she learned this many years ago when she visited English and Irish daffodil growers. They do it because many of them have very small spaces to grow daffodils. They called it thick planting the daffodils. Believe it or not one of her friends and hybridizer raised his daffodils mostly in his front yard when he only had a small lot. He farmed many of his hybridize daffodils out to local farmers because he had no space to watch them grow for 7 or more years before blooming. He maintained ownership of those farmed out daffodils. I have experimented with both methods, and I will state that you can get more bulbs planted in a 50′ long bed 4′ wide if you plant in single file than if you put them in groups or clusters, that is if you want to be able to determine where one variety of daffodil start and stops and another starts. Planting in groups and clusters are however, best for beautification and/or naturalization.
How much space between bulbs? When planted as single file rows across a bed space them 6 inches apart and the rows 10 inches apart. (by the way, exact measurement is not mandatory), like in horseshoes and hand-grenades, close is good enough. I’ve seen some people out with a yard stick to measure distance. Totally unnecessary.
Between beds use an 18 inches space to have a walkway. I’ve seen beds that were 10 feet wide and the owner trampled their own daffodils to reach those they waned for a show.
How often do you divide? The daffodil tells me when it wants to divide. When the bulb off-shoots are as large as the original bulb, pull them apart. Many times when you are handling and cleaning a bulb the off-shoots will come off on their own. By all means do not put back into the ground a large three headed bulb, take them off and make three bulbs out of it. Yearly you will have some bulbs that are ready to be divided, and some that are not. If the off-shoot is tight against the mother bulb, leave it as is.
What’s your best method of recording location? Do you number the rows? Do you have names for different beds? Plant alphabetically? By Division?
To start with the last couple questions: I plant alphabetically, but I know some that plant by division. I find it easier when I’m gathering daffodils for shows to have them alphabetically because if helps me pick a wide variety of daffodils for the show, instead of just looking at a division. I show collections and unless you are doing division collections, which I have done, you need a variety of daffodils to make up that collection.
Now to the question of recording the location, and the numbering of the rows or beds. I number the rows as I plant them on each individual bed, and I do number and name the beds and the bed locations. One bed may have up to 50 rows, so it’s the recording that is important.
Recording the location: Every bed I make I either number or give it a name and a location (In relation of my yard, things like At North Fence Bed #N-1, or at the driveway off the kitchen #K-7, East bed behind the house, closest to house #E-1) on a piece of lined legal paper so that I can look at the paper and know where that bed is. I record that location on that legal pad (with school-kid type Clip Board). On each separate bed I start with the [placing my planting board across the bed and determining a start point for the bed. I then record the bed name and if I’m planting from North to South, or East to West etc. Starting with row #1 on that bed, I first put down the Zinc Marker (label of any type) with the name, color code, US or origin of the daffodil. NZ, NI, Eng, Aus, etc. I record the row as #1 on the legal pad, the name of the bulb, color code, etc. I drill holes, and plant the bulbs and move to the next row which will be row #2 of that bed and repeat the process. Sometimes the row will have more than one variety in that row. I’ve planted up to 7 separate varieties in one row, each with their own label with name, color code, etc
Now I’ve got medical problems that will not allow me to stand very long, so I do all the recording while sitting on my garden bench. While sitting on the bench I record the bed, the row, the daffodil bulb with color code, country of origin, etc. Than I stand up, drill the holes, plant the bulbs, cover them, then sit down and go to the next batch of bulbs and repeat the process of recording them and getting them ready to plant.
Piece of advice: make all your labels before you go out to the beds to do the planting. Also determine the bulbs to be planted and how many, all the remaining bulbs you need to determine a disposition on them, give them away, give to relatives, friends, daffodil societies, naturalize etc. Do not take all the bulbs you have out to the beds you are going to plant. Be efficient, when you go out to plant, it should all be sorted before your get there, you will save a lot of time and keep you from hauling a lot of bulbs and gear that you don’t need for the daffodil planting.
Good luck.
Clay
Clay, thank you for this; I have learned so much!
Hi Pam,
Thanks. I’m glad it helped.
Clay