Gardening Green with Doug
How To Properly Pick Daffodils and Other Spring Gardening Tips
By Doug Oster
April 11, 2022
The late afternoon sun is sticking around longer, and it filters through the pale yellow petals of daffodil blooms.
It’s the beauty of spring daffodils that announce the true arrival of spring. Even though they seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, these ephemeral beauties provide cheerful color to kick off the season.
How to pick daffodils
Did you know there’s a right and wrong way to harvest them for a vase?
Picking instead of cutting will make them last longer in a vase. Reach to the bottom of the stem — as close to the ground as possible — and gently pluck the flower stem at the base. This should result in a stem that is spongy and solid, not hollow.
Picking in the morning is preferred, but not absolutely necessary. It’s better to get to them before the afternoon sun has robbed them of some of their precious moisture.
The late afternoon sun is sticking around longer, and it filters through the pale yellow petals of daffodil blooms.
It’s the beauty of spring daffodils that announce the true arrival of spring. Even though they seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, these ephemeral beauties provide cheerful color to kick off the season.
It’s common for older clumps to bloom sparingly or not even flower at all. If that’s the case in your landscape, here’s what to do: When all hopes of flowering have passed, dig out the entire clump and lift it out of the ground. It’s critical that foliage stay intact, as it will provide the replanted bulbs with the energy they need to bloom again next spring.
Gently tease the bulbs apart, keeping the biggest for replanting. The smaller bulbs can be discarded or planted somewhere else. Improve the planting hole with compost and place the bulbs a few inches apart and add the original backfill. The greens will not be happy, but will still provide what’s needed to keep the bulbs alive.
An application of the organic, granular fertilizer Bulbtone will help too. In fact, that’s a great idea for all blooming bulbs. Scatter the fertilizer around the base of the plants and let spring rains dissolve the granules into the soil.
For many gardeners, the sight of the declining foliage of daffodils drives them crazy. In my case, I just look over at the tulips in bloom, but not everyone can be distracted as easily.
It’s not a good idea to braid the foliage as some do, as it can make the bulbs susceptible to fungal issues.
Bulb expert Brent Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs explains that the foliage can be removed eight weeks after blooming without harming the bulbs.
This is the perfect time to take some photos, draw a map or record in a garden journal where spring bulbs are blooming — and more importantly where they aren’t.
It’s important to know where new bulbs will be planted in the fall, and there’s no way to remember after another long gardening season.
Planting bulbs at the end of the season does not provide instant gratification. That happens now as all that hard work pays off in the form of colorful spring flowers.
Daffodils + Daylilies
One great companion for daffodils are daylilies. As the daffodils fade away, with their yellowish-brown foliage, the daylilies sprout, covering the unsightly leaves with their fresh green leaves.
Like the daffodils, daylilies also get crowded after a few seasons. They will benefit from dividing this time of the year.
There’s nothing you can do to hurt these plants, so get in there with a sharp spade, dig out clumps and separate them into small clumps. Like the daffodils, add compost to the soil and give each clump room to grow. Planting them about a foot apart would work. Even though this process seems brutal, the plants will be encouraged to root and bloom strongly.
Although they are tough, daylilies will also benefit from an application of organic fertilizer like Plant-Tone.
Combining these two plants will give you early blooms from the daffodils, hide the fading foliage and then provide pretty summer blooms too.
Greatest collection of blooming daffodils, free and open to the public
Joe Hamm’s Daffodil Gardens in Washington, PA is the greatest collection of blooming daffodils I’ve ever seen.
It’s free and open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the month of April.
There are 50 beds filled with over 1,200 different daffodil cultivars and over 30,000 blooms.
Many of the varieties are not available commercially any longer, so it’s an opportunity to see rare and unique blooms.
One interesting story at the garden involves the named variety ‘Spencer Tracy,’ introduced in the 1940s. Joe’s sister, Georgine Materniak noticed there was no variety named for Katharine Hepburn and told Joe.
He discovered something called a sport, meaning a daffodil which sent up a flower that was different, unlike what it was supposed to be, he got it officially named ‘Katharine Hepburn.’
The two varieties are a couple of beds apart, but will always be together.
The Daffodil Gardens are located in Washington County, Buffalo Village at 99 Maple Road off of Route 331. Look for the Red Barn. See the attachment for more detailed directions. Call 724 345-3762 for more information.
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