Frost resistance of narcissus

In the pdf text ‘Frost resistanc of narcissus august 2018′

I describe the resistance of daffodils to frost in a special case. Informations concerning this problem are sparse but important for many growers and hybridizers. Daffnet is the right place to ask for information. If you have experiences in this field for species and standard daffodils please write. Perhaps I can collect the comments within a special paper.

Theo

4 comments for “Frost resistance of narcissus

  1. In my experience I’ve seen a lot of daffodils that have had “Frost bite” like this. Spray some fungicide on them and leave them until next year and they will come back again. As long as the bulb itself was not frozen. It looks like this is frozen foliage only.

    clay

  2. In middle Tennessee I have a lot of foliage that gets frozen back (along with buds) almost every year — mainly with tazettas, but I hardly ever lose a bulb.  These bulbs return year after year to produce healthy looking foliage only to be frozen to mush year after year.  ‘Avalanche’ is one of these: I get some blooms on a large patch only about once every 8 years or so even though the bulbs multiply.  I have lost several species tazettas and the ones that I haven’t lost don’t bloom.  The foliage gets frozen back in the springtime usually along with the buds.  This year I dug the bulbs of the few remaining tazetta species to send to someone farther south to grow.

    In Minnesota they say they have to plant all their bulbs early enough so the roots get established well before the hard freeze hits.  I think they lose a lot of bulbs from freezing so perhaps someone there can add to the discussion.

    When I first started growing species I especially wished for such a list.  I thought there would be a definitive temperature threshold, but it seems it’s more complicated than that.  Similarly now with the viridiflorus hybrids — a few I try to grow outdoors; some have the foliage and buds frozen back most if not all years, and others won’t survive even our fairly mild winters.  ‘Mesa Verde’ is happy, thrives and multiplies.  So far it’s the only one I can definitely recommend for growing outdoors here in middle TN.  The Viridiflorus collection of 5 different bulbs that was sold by Dutch Grown in 2015 — I’ve seen some flowers from those outdoors and they seem to be surviving here so far.

  3. Clay, Your advice comes to late. All bulbs of Fallstaff are for seven years in daffodil heaven.

    Becky, I think the 5 bulbs of the Viridiflorus collection from W.F. Leenen are second generation hybrids as Mesa Verde with 25% Viridiflorus chromosomes and therefore more resistant to frost than the first generation types like Emerald Sea with 50 % Viridiflorus chromosomes.

    Theo

     

     

  4. Sorry. In my opinion the loss of Fallstaff is no big loss. However, just because the frost gets the foliage, it doesn’t mean the bub is dead. It doesn’t grow in my gardens. Usually they will come back the next year.

    clay

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