From: Stephanie K <
>
Subject: Interesting daffodil questions
Message Body:
I have a theoretical question about daffodils and their spread via bulb division. If left naturally to its own devices for, say, 25 years, what would a garden look like if you started with a single daffodil? Would there be any flowers? Would someone have to intervene and separate the bulbs periodically to ensure they keep blooming? How far would the patch spread from that one daffodil?
I have rodents and moles that often move bulbs in their work maintaining their tunnels. Bryanston was spread 25 meters and spread down into the I now have hundreds of bulbs that spread from a clump that a tunnel went through a decade ago
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Some years ago I found a clump of recurvus on my farm (I have yet to figure out why there were there; no where close to any historic home site). I suspect they’d been there dividing (rich soil area) for many, many years.
The effect was a clump of perhaps a yard across. Only a few blooms.
Based on this, I’d say division is beneficial, but needed only after many years. A caveat however: in my experience, recurvus likes being disturbed to bloom. Perhaps others would do better untouched.
Regards, Drew
Ben Sloy Farm
Ohio
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It should also be mentioned that naturalised bulbs will also produce seed
after being pollenated but bees and other passing insects!
These seeds roll down slight slopes in the natural landscape and germinate,
so expanding the are covered area.
Also naturalised bulbs will not flower in abundance every year only may be
every 4 to 5 yrs, this is because as the bulbs divide naturally they will
take time to reach flowering size.
If left to there own devices over time the flowers may get smaller and
sometimes become unrecognisable as to what they are meant to be.
It is also advised to feed the area with a general fertiliser once a year
after flowing or in Autunm.
Cheers
Ian
I’ve done a lot of naturalizing daffodils since I was a teenager which was
long before I got into ADS. I find that daffodils, if they survive and
many don’t, have to be dug and thinned out about every 5 years if you want
them to keep blooming. Sometimes, adding fertilizer will get a few more
blooms. The problem quiet often is that if you don’t dig and divide the
bulbs can start pushing themselves up and out of the ground. They also
stop blooming or the blooms become small. ‘Tete-e-Tete’ is one of those
that pushes itself out of the ground. Even when I was a little kid, my
mother would tell me to dig and thin out our daffodils, usually by
extending the bed along a fence. Every spring we had daffodils blooming on
the old home place back in Arkansas. Somehow, she knew that daffodils
stopped blooming when the bulbs became too crowded.
One the the problems I have had with naturalizing daffodils in NC when I
lived there and in my current home in NJ is that the soil is mostly sand,
I keep a pile of topsoil behind my barn, and every time I naturalize
daffodils, I first go to the topsoil pile and get a wheelbarrow full.
Afterwards, I dig a deep hole to plant the bulbs, put in some fertilizer,
cover with topsoil, place the bulbs and fill the hole with the remainder of
the topsoil. If I don’t do that and plant them in the sandy soil, they
bloom the first year, show foliage the second year, and gone or
unrecognizable the next year. With this method, I provide the people that
drive along the street in front of my house with a host of
beautiful daffodils (beautiful at 45 miles an hour) year after year each
spring.
Clay
After 20 + years my daffs have spread over 1 + acre. They are beautiful. Let them be free:).
Beautiful!!Sent from Cheryl Lockhart