Daffodils seem to bloom longer and multiply better than tulips in my experience, they are by far my favorite bulb flower in the garden. Thank you for another super video 💚
Every time I see daffodils I think of that wonder scene from Dr Zhivago when he opens the window after the long cold winter and the grounds are full of bright yellow daffodils and that haunting theme playing in the background…wow Alexandra, you have just take me right back in time…thank you ❤️ and may I say I am delighted to see your subscribers growing ..,I’ve been following you from the very beginning…wonderful to see your success..long may it continue xx
Oh, you can find that scene here on youtube! And no CGI! 7000 bulbs had to be planted, and then dug up because they started blooming to early for the filming!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden ….I’m delighted you did reply, honestly, your videos are so inspiring, I’ve even got my children following you, you bring so much happiness to so many people in these uncertain times …please never stop! 🥰
An old gardener told me when daffodils go blind is because the are to cramped and a sign is usual their is a shape of a mound building up this is often very common in old gardens where the place is abandoned and the residents are dead so just dig them up the daffodils not the residents separate them give them a new bed but this time add fertilise them because the bulbs would have been compeating for food that why they don't flower so add good well rotted farm manure-and a bit of 10 10 20 they wil catch-up and you'll have free daffodils but for best flowering results keep them out of the shade the best you can but after a certain number of years they will need separation Thanks a lot for all the trouble you go to for us viewers the pots of tulips are a great idea God bless great going
That sounds like good advice. I know that sometimes people manage to get the daffodils back after they go blind, but others say it doesn't work. Always worth trying, though.
Thanks for this, I want to plant my dam wall with daffodils next year . Looking forward to seeing the hillside covered in lovely bulbs in blue (grape Hyacinths) and yellow daffodils
What a gorgeous flower the Rip Van Winkle is. I also like the Thalia for my white "Moon Garden". Very useful advice, simply explained as always. Thank you.
I went completely BONKERS last year ordering Daffodils! It took me forever to plant them all !! I was still planting in late January!! And so I've tried not to order any more this year. Just take ONE YEAR OFF, I keep telling myself... But I must admit, as Fall gets closer, and closer, and the bulb companies keep telling me they still have some left, I feel the bulb buying fever coming on!! The daffodil show is always soooo good!!! It's so hard to resist!!!!!
One tip I have is to plant daffs in with another plant that will grow up to hide the withering daff foliage. This helps me resist cutting the foliage back too soon when it's looking scruffy. And I think I'll get some more daffodil bulbs. This spring I realized that what I thought was frost damage was tulip fire, so I had to dig up all my tulips and put them in the garbage. But other bulbs aren't affected, so I'll need some new bulbs to fill in the gaps. I love the very pale daffs you've shown on screen.
Very good point. Around grasses and sedges is ideal as they share similar foliage. I get to the point where I almost want to cut them back and then something else starts blooming and I’m distracted…then they just seem to melt away 😊
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I'm going to experiment with leaving dahlias in the ground next year. I've got a well drained location where it may work (they've failed after a couple of years in another spot, and I think it was a drainage problem). Here's hoping!
Great concise advice as always, thankyou. I now only grow tulips and daffodils in pots because the foliage dying off looks so messy in my small garden. I am definitely going to plant Thalia this year, such a lovely daffodil. ❤
This Fall, I’ve planted over 300 new Daffodils bulbs, larger yellow and yellow & white in my garden bed. We have a lot of smaller whites around the house and garage that had been planted by former owners
Dear Alexandra, You have reinvigorated me to put Daffodils on my list. I have been wanting some for ages because my dear old Mum grew them when I was a child. I got a birthday voucher from my youngest sister a few years ago and bought a bag of bulbs however I was extremely disappointed because they turned out to so tiny as compared to the photographic description. I gave them away. They weren't really the colour I want either which is striking plain bright yellow. Almost a month into Spring here at your suggestion I can still plant some now. I'm patient enough to wait until next year in the case that I may not get any flowers this year. Thank you so very much once again for another fabulous, informative video x 🧡💛🧡🙏😇🇦🇺🧡💛🧡🕊️🌼
Because I had no real idea what I was doing when I started but I loved the look of lots and lots of naturalized daffodils, I began planting them by the dozens in parts of my yard, then was forced to cut them down when the grass began to grow too tall. I know it's a huge no-no, but I've been planting more and then mowing them down every year for about 30 years now. What I've noticed is that the older ones still come back, but over they lose some of their pigment, and I don't think the bloom time is as long. I do try to wait to cut them down until the flower heads have withered, which is usually around the end of May or beginning of June for me in southern New York. I'm not advocating that people should do that, but if you have to cut them back for some reason, don't panic. I don't fertilize them, I don't water them, I don't deadhead them, and we plant them about 4 inches deep, not digging individual holes but using the scatter method and digging a big hole. They're darling little workhorses and don't mind a bit of abuse and neglect 💚
I like daffs more and more....they are so reliable. This Spring I seemed to have a lot more than last year! They are also good value. I have had some lovely results with " bulk buy bargain packs" you can more or less sort the bulbs into groups before planting just by studying their shape and colour This has worked well for me. Thanks for the tips.
I have ordered some double daffodil bulbs. I wonder if I have chosen a finicky, less reliable type to try, but they are lovely in the catalog. Regular daffs do very well here in the Pacific Northwest.
When I took the garden over from my parents (who still enjoy it, but because of age cannot garden themselves), I completely redesigned the paths, which left me with about 1200 (!!!) daffodil bulbs (the simplest, almost wild variety). I painstakingly planted them along the new paths, in lines, about 2 inches apart. The first two springs they looked a bit pathetic; many did not bloom at all. Now they are clumping out and getting better each year. I also plant a lot of daffodil bulbs bought from nurseries or imported from Poland and the Netherlands. They are gorgeous, of all imaginable colours, sizes and types. And quite expensive here. So I always plant them in baskets, in clumps, and dig out after the leaves go dry, to replant in October. My garden is in St. Petersburg region, Russia. We still have snow and a lot of water, and I can't wait to see them bloom, which will happen in late April - May.
Nothing is more delightful than seeing swaths of daffodils blooming in the spring (Wordsworth was right). I have been planting them by the hundreds in my beds, the edges of lawns and in my woods and ravines. I have rocky soil and I have not always been able to plant them as deeply as I would like but they have still bloomed for me. The only time I have had daffs fail was when I planted them where, unbeknownst to me, water collected during the winter. They are tough plants but they don't like soggy soil. The bulb companies usually have good information about which daffs are best for naturalizing. There are also good mixes either for a succession of bloom or for a particular theme. I plant the smaller, more delicate types and those with complex double blooms or fragrance in the front of the borders. Larger more dramatic daffs go where they will be seen from a distance. I bought "Gigantic Star" this year, we will see whether it lives up to its name planted high on a wooded slope! Thanks for doing the survey on bulb advice -- since I plant a lot of bulbs I have dispensed with fertilizing and watering and haven't noticed any diminution in performance of the plants. Glad to know I'm not missing something.
Always exciting to plant bulbs in the autumn! I like all kinds of bulbs, but as you said tulips are easiest in pots. As far as daffodils go, I have a lot of Tete-a-Tete, because they are early and great next to my hyacinths. I also have Thalia and Geranium, and this year I will add Barrett Browning, because I love the ones with orange centers.
I grew a few tulips in pots and around 2000 daffodils bulbs in border fronts . I have now from Dutch Bulb co planted yesterday over 1000 new bulbs .As you say they never left you down
Such brilliant advice and tips Alexandra! There's such a wonderful variety of daffodils that there's always something to suit everyone. What more welcome sight is there, after a long Winter, than nodding heads with buds appearing in Spring with that first hint of colour just before they bloom.
Daffodils show us that Spring has begun to arrive. I will have to look up Wordsworth"s poem, which I thought trifling when I was in college, but might better appreciate now.
Daffodils are my go-to bulbs. The creatures leave them alone, you can plant them almost anywhere, they multiply rather than fading away, some have wonderful scent, and the maintenance is next to nothing. Plus, they're comparatively cheap. Also, I use them to protect my tulips, which the creatures devour if planted on their own. Favorites are Dutch Master, Golden Echo, Ice Follies, Quail, Thalia, and poeticus. If you pick a good selection you can have some blooming from February through May.
Inspiring. The “Flock Finger Lakes” channel recently posted a video about buying bulbs in bulk for mass planting. That info goes nicely with what you provided here.
Love your choice and type of information given in these presentations ! I live in Raleigh, NC and love gardening. However, am constantly trying to improve my knowledge of all things “gardening “. Thanks for the time and research that goes into the preparation for your program.
Four years ago I started to plant daffodils in the boulevard in front of my house and the neighbors tell me how they enjoy walking past to see them in bloom. Since we fertilize our lawn with organic matter I assume that's how my daffodils are getting a feed each year? Your video has inspired me to purchase more bulbs and keep on planting.
I’m slowly working on making a meadow of our field and I added daffodils last year, for an early splash of color. They were wonderful 😊 I never used to like them because I only ever saw the plain yellow, but I now use them everywhere because of their hardiness and deer resistance. Also, who knew there were so many beautiful varieties?! I do now and I add more every year. I’ve purchased a ProPlugger (US product) and it makes the job sooo much easier in my heavy clay soil. Augers are hard to use in heavy soil, in my experience. PS, I’ve head that phosphorus, the element that bulbs are purported to need the most, doesn’t move well (or at all) in the soil, so it’s possibly pointless to add “bulb fertilizers” after the fact on top of the soil. I think you’re right that building good soil is the main thing, both for bulbs and gardening in general.
Fertilizer does not affect the flowering of the current season because daffodils use the reserve stored in the bulb, however it’s very beneficial for “replenishing” the bulb for the following year’s flowering. It’s true that phosphorus has very little mobility in the soil that’s why, as a general rule, it’s advisable either to mix it with the soil before planting or spread it in the fall. That way, by the next spring, the rain, the worms, microbes, and other natural processes will have time to move it to the roots of the plants.
Good morning Alexandra, you have really inspired me to try growing daffies again!! Thee are so many "superstitious" stories relating why these gorgeous little cup and saucer flowers won't bloom that I just gave up, I have to admit I am a "very" impatient gardener. If sprouting takes too long to my liking, I go and gently dig up around the bulbs to see what is their case for not sprouting, and 9 times out of 10, there are the signs of sprouting coming along :) patience is a virtue...... As I am in S Africa and our summers are quite hot, I will first try them in pots as I can move them to a more cooler part for the time being and play around and see what location will be best suited. I think you have covered all the aspects of happy daffodil planting and a good tip about the tulips, they are just too beautiful not to take care of. The deeper planting will also help the bulbs to stay a bit cooler as close to the surface might just be that bit too hot for them to handle. Gardening is always a challenge, but it teaches us patience and perseverance. For our climate in the Southern Hemisphere I think the merry month of May will be better suited for bulb planting. We are just in the start of our early summer, but I am looking forward to my autumn challenge next year Lord willing. Thank you for always sharing and doing your best to help us with our planting and planning, and your garden is looking great, the shrubs are doing so well and yes, planting daffodils under the lawn, really needs a patient gardener as they want to start cutting the grass and they are not prepared to wait unless you change your lawn type :) the no mowing type with the flat leaf. Do take care, go well, many blessings. Kind regards.
Great point on varying the bloom times, colors, and heights. You can have flowers for months this way! The only mix I’ve found that I like is a “pink” mix. It is truly lovely and all the types seem to work well together. JetFire is my earliest blooming variety and they withstand wetter soil as well. I shy away from the super double blooms as they tend to hang their heads or even break under the weight.
Just discovered Ur videos just loving Ur videos merrilyn from Australia l watch videos like garden answers so it's so good to see British gardens and learn different ideas so thanku 😊🌺
Thank you Alexandra, I will be planting some daffodils this fall. I planted tulips but do not like how long it takes for them to die back. I have alot of areas along our long driveway to plant the daffodils. Looking forward to seeing them bloom in spring
Awesome video content as always... thank you very much. What I have done the last few years is plant my daffodils with my darwin tulips in the ground as well as containers because I do have the deer rabbit and squirrels. I also like how it's almost like mini bouquets in your garden beds. So if you have two different varieties of tulips two different varieties of daffodils all within the same hole it's so beautiful!!!
I have also found that putting daffs around and among the tulips has deterred the deer (so far!) I wasn't optimistic as I have heard so many stories about people planting beds of tulips, having the tulips come up and just as they were about to bloom, the deer nipped off every flower. So far, so good with the mix'em up method. I like your idea for containers.
Very informative. I grow lots of daffodils because tulips go over too quickly in our climate or the varmints eat the bulbs but daffodils flower beautifully for me. I do find that the doubles hang their heads to low for my taste.
So timely! We just planted our new woodland garden in the backyard with many daffodils. We will also be planting a couple of whiskey barrel planters with them, as well. Thank you for the informative and helpful video.
Thank you for a very helpful video. I’ve just planted some tuplis in the ground but I like your idea about planting lots close together in pots. I will try this.
Lovely video! Lots of good reminders, I´m one that tend to plant mine too shallow. I said this year: NO more bulbs, they always get eaten. Garlic, daffys all of them! Doesn´t matter if they are planted in the ground, boxes, pots. Still I have iris, lilies etc that are left alone year after year. So, saving this video...and there are going to be more bulbs :)
Thank you! I've got some squares of chicken wire (cut by my husband) and I place those over the pots after planting. Then I remove them as soon as the green shoots poke through as apparently once the bulbs have started to grow, they're no longer attractive to pests.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden So it works! I was thinking of that, have some pieces with very small pattern but was afraid I hurt the sprouts and the fourlegged ones would get to it anyways. Now I will certainly try it. Thank you! (And yes I went and got my bulbs, apricot and white😊)
This was terrific information, Alexandra! I love the white Thalias, and they do well here. San Diego can have hot days, even in winter, so early flowering varieties are best. We can (especially as we are slated for yet another "La Niña" winter) have weeks of hot, dry weather as early as April. In past years I've found pink daffodils; one had a large blooms with the back white and the front pink, and the others were all pink and ruffled, with several layers of petals. Thank you for sharing your past mistakes, and encouraging our dreams of spring. :)
Grass in Latvia is stronger and daffy flowers and is taken over by grass before plant leaves brown off. Then if rain cant mow tall grass. So lawns loo k a mess .I plant in borders and it loos just as good . Over 2000 bulbs from last year and year before .Fill gaps in all borders and are no problem .
William Wordsworth has a wonderful poem about daffodils. If anyone wants to Google it, it starts I wandered lonely as a cloud. In Northern Europe, daffodils are "zero maintenance" but we all look forward to them in Spring. They are the most beautiful plant in the world in my opinion, but not a weed. If you don't plant any, you won't have any. If you don't have any in your garden and your garden is coldish for 5 months then plant at least 5 bulbs, they will come back for years and years
The last couple years, in my border, once the spring bulbs have died back, I slip in potted summer plants so there aren’t gaps in my border and I don’t disturb the spring bulbs (snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, allium) but wonder if it could cause any problems for the bulbs. Oh and am I the only one who loves how she says “goodbye” at the end 😂.
Thank you! I don't think putting the pots in the borders will disturb other plants, as long as the pot aren't actually on top of them. But with bulbs, once the bulb foliage died back, the bulb is dormant underground, so it would be fine to put a pot on top (I have many friends who do), just remember to take the pot away before the foliage tries to emerge in late winter.
Where I live in NYS zone 5 for some reason it is always very windy. The fancy ruffled daffodils always get knocked down so I go for the simpler one and also those poeticus ones that have like no cup. And good drainage or else make the planting bed high.
I have planted the small, normal and ice follies daffodils in my first gardening year. They were beautiful with the next spring. But sadly my ice follies turned out to be regular yellow daffodils, so that was a bummer. Hopefully they will turn the right colour next spring. I also got a small type of daffodil, bride crown or something like that from my mother-in-law last year. I'm curious how it will look next spring.
Were the Ice Follies just the wrong bulb? We've had that experience a number of times ( bought red tulips, but they were yellow; bought calla lilies but they were Asiatic). These are just packaging or sorting errors.
It sounds as if that was a labelling problem - that the company you bought them from labelled them wrong. That is surprisingly common, I've had it a lot with roses, and somewhat with dahlias. I think you may have to buy Ice Follies again! (I've just bought a pack of that very daffodil and am also looking forward to it coming up).
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I bought the bulbs at Lidl, the company who distributed the bulbs is a bulb nursery or some sorts. I will have to give the yellow ones away first, before I have room for the real ice follies. I have in my opinion way to many yellow daffodils anyway. I like the small tête-a-tête the best, together with the ice follies and the bridal crown I got from my mother-in-law.
I am going to try planting tulips in pots. I had given up trying to have them in my flower beds. We have lunatic squirrels who bite the blooms off the stems and leave them lying on the ground. *sigh* 😑
I have grown tulips in pots. I had very good luck with Shogun, an early, multi-flowered Kaufman tulip. I had much worse luck with later tulips, Akebono and Virichic. So many variables, though: both winters were very mild (for 7b, where I live), and I neglected to water them at all. You want to plant multi-flowering tulips further apart than single-flowered types.
Thank you Alexandra. It is a joy to listen to your advise! Do dads like wet soil? My dear neighbor and his newly installed sprinkling system has already drown my salvia (it rotted) and I am looking to replace it with a small plant (or bulbs) that can stand the daily "rain". Cheers
Great info here. Here in the states, people who live in warmer climates, are suggested to put their bulbs in the fridge, to give the bulb it's cold stratification period. My favorites are the double peaches and pinks, I think they're lovely planted with pure white. My second favorite bulb are grape hyacinth, every color.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I asked Janey if I could share this with you. She made a very informative video about chilling your bulbs in warm climates. I thought you'd be interested, she's celebrating her 1 year on TH-cam. I wondered if you'd maybe do a video with her about chilling bulbs, she's in California, 9B. th-cam.com/video/ZBTCfunDP4Q/w-d-xo.html&lc=Ugzuw-4NOETsBuy2ywh4AaABAg.9glFpT3KwiR9gmFBV7hFQR
I opted last year at this time to convert my teeny backyard garden to a bulb flower garden. It was a spectacular show this spring, but after the bulbs I planted as DAFFODILS (which I adore) came up as tulips because the pack was mismarked, I was SAD. But the tulips bloomed later and lasted a good amount of time for me to enjoy.
One question not covered is - with daffs or tulips in pots, should we keep watering until the leaves have completely died or can we leave them to die back quickly on their own with no water? Should we water the pots in to May/June?
Don't throw your "blind" daffodils away. Separate them and replant in good soil with sun. In a year of two you should get the bulbs back up to blooming size if they are a fit for your area. If they don't like it there... then pitch 'em.
Thank you for this excellent and timely video, Alexandra. We dug up a lot of daffodils this year which had naturalized themselves in a garden bed. It was just too much work to get in between all the plants and deadhead the daffs, and the dying leaves looked rather unsightly. This fall I'm going to plant them in pots instead. Do you know if they have to be planted as deeply in pots as in the ground? And can I leave the pots outdoors? We have a closed in area under the deck, which is inaccessible to most animals, but still open to the weather.
I think they're fine in pots outside, daffs are pretty hardy. I'm not sure about depth, I think if they're too shallow then squirrels dig them up but you could always put some chicken wire over the top until they start to sprout. But I've seen people plant them quite shallow if they're not worried about that.
Last year I planted mine in pots due to major renovations. They did quite well. I plan to leave them in the pots for their 2nd season, currently in my garage protected from the Texas heat. Should I remove them and repot or just leave them undisturbed until spring?
I'd just leave them. When they start to grow add some liquid fertiliser, as they'll have used up everything in the pot, but while they're dormant, just keep them in a cool, frost free place.
Can you help please I have a small patch where I would like to grow daffodils and tulips for my mum, however I am not sure how I can utilize the space whilst waiting for greens to dry down and use this space for growing summer flowers. Iam just novice learning to garden.
Most people just plant around the dying leaves - that's what I do myself. The summer plants are often quite small at that stage and they grow bigger as the daffodils grow smaller. About six weeks after flowering, you can remove the last of the dying foliage and by then the bulb should have everything it needs for next year's flowers. It's happy to share a border with summer flowers as it's dormant and under the ground by then.
I have a lot of daffodils and tulips in my garden but I also have an inwelcome guest, namely a European water vole (I do hope that it is A vole, but it's rather unlikely). I have recently discovered its presence, the signs are unmistakable. This animal can destroy one's garden in a season.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thank you! It has visited the neighbours too (those with the real gardens, not just lawns), so it might be considering permanent residency in our street ;-)
I have ordered some double daffodil bulbs. I wonder if I have chosen a finicky, less reliable type to try, but they are lovely in the catalog. Regular daffs do very well here in the Pacific Northwest.
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Daffodils seem to bloom longer and multiply better than tulips in my experience, they are by far my favorite bulb flower in the garden. Thank you for another super video 💚
Thank you!
Every time I see daffodils I think of that wonder scene from Dr Zhivago when he opens the window after the long cold winter and the grounds are full of bright yellow daffodils and that haunting theme playing in the background…wow Alexandra, you have just take me right back in time…thank you ❤️ and may I say I am delighted to see your subscribers growing ..,I’ve been following you from the very beginning…wonderful to see your success..long may it continue xx
Oh, you can find that scene here on youtube! And no CGI! 7000 bulbs had to be planted, and then dug up because they started blooming to early for the filming!
Thank you so much, it has been such an interesting journey for me, so I appreciate you following along. Sorry about the late reply!
@@alexandravladmets8206 …wow ….amazing facts..thank you xx
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden ….I’m delighted you did reply, honestly, your videos are so inspiring, I’ve even got my children following you, you bring so much happiness to so many people in these uncertain times …please never stop! 🥰
Another wonderful video! Lots of good advice and inspiration as always! Thanks.
An old gardener told me when daffodils go blind is because the are to cramped and a sign is usual their is a shape of a mound building up this is often very common in old gardens where the place is abandoned and the residents are dead so just dig them up the daffodils not the residents separate them give them a new bed but this time add fertilise them because the bulbs would have been compeating for food that why they don't flower so add good well rotted farm manure-and a bit of 10 10 20 they wil catch-up and you'll have free daffodils but for best flowering results keep them out of the shade the best you can but after a certain number of years they will need separation
Thanks a lot for all the trouble you go to for us viewers the pots of tulips are a great idea
God bless great going
“so just dig them up the daffodils not the residents”. 😂 This channel has the wittiest comments. Brilliant.
That sounds like good advice. I know that sometimes people manage to get the daffodils back after they go blind, but others say it doesn't work. Always worth trying, though.
Thank you very much for your wonderful reply
Thanks for this, I want to plant my dam wall with daffodils next year . Looking forward to seeing the hillside covered in lovely bulbs in blue (grape Hyacinths) and yellow daffodils
That sounds excellent.
What a gorgeous flower the Rip Van Winkle is. I also like the Thalia for my white "Moon Garden". Very useful advice, simply explained as always. Thank you.
Thank you!
I went completely BONKERS last year ordering Daffodils!
It took me forever to plant them all !!
I was still planting in late January!!
And so I've tried not to order any more this year.
Just take ONE YEAR OFF,
I keep telling myself...
But I must admit,
as Fall gets closer,
and closer,
and the bulb companies keep telling me they still have some left,
I feel the bulb buying fever coming on!!
The daffodil show is always soooo good!!!
It's so hard to resist!!!!!
I feel your pain! I find myself digging up daffodils to plant daffodils, especially as they spread.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden ha! 😆😆😆
Hey, wait... 😳
That's a good idea...
You are not alone!
One tip I have is to plant daffs in with another plant that will grow up to hide the withering daff foliage. This helps me resist cutting the foliage back too soon when it's looking scruffy. And I think I'll get some more daffodil bulbs. This spring I realized that what I thought was frost damage was tulip fire, so I had to dig up all my tulips and put them in the garbage. But other bulbs aren't affected, so I'll need some new bulbs to fill in the gaps. I love the very pale daffs you've shown on screen.
Very good point. Around grasses and sedges is ideal as they share similar foliage. I get to the point where I almost want to cut them back and then something else starts blooming and I’m distracted…then they just seem to melt away 😊
Good tip. Sarah Raven suggests planting them with dahlias, but that would only work where it's mild enough to leave dahlias in the ground.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Yes, unfortunately. Daylilies also work well.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I'm going to experiment with leaving dahlias in the ground next year. I've got a well drained location where it may work (they've failed after a couple of years in another spot, and I think it was a drainage problem). Here's hoping!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Works well in Canterbury NZ which has cold frosty winters and the dahlias just die back till late spring
Great concise advice as always, thankyou. I now only grow tulips and daffodils in pots because the foliage dying off looks so messy in my small garden. I am definitely going to plant Thalia this year, such a lovely daffodil. ❤
It is!
This Fall, I’ve planted over 300 new Daffodils bulbs, larger yellow and yellow & white in my garden bed. We have a lot of smaller whites around the house and garage that had been planted by former owners
It sounds as if it will be lovely in spring.
This video is excellent, a wealth of knowledge and excellent tips!
Thank you!
Dear Alexandra,
You have reinvigorated me to put Daffodils on my list. I have been wanting some for ages because my dear old Mum grew them when I was a child. I got a birthday voucher from my youngest sister a few years ago and bought a bag of bulbs however I was extremely disappointed because they turned out to so tiny as compared to the photographic description. I gave them away. They weren't really the colour I want either which is striking plain bright yellow. Almost a month into Spring here at your suggestion I can still plant some now. I'm patient enough to wait until next year in the case that I may not get any flowers this year. Thank you so very much once again for another fabulous, informative video x 🧡💛🧡🙏😇🇦🇺🧡💛🧡🕊️🌼
Thank you! And there are so many stories of mis-labelling, it is clearly something that happens a lot.
They grow in Tennessee USA for about 2 months before spring. Best video I have see so far thank you.
Because I had no real idea what I was doing when I started but I loved the look of lots and lots of naturalized daffodils, I began planting them by the dozens in parts of my yard, then was forced to cut them down when the grass began to grow too tall. I know it's a huge no-no, but I've been planting more and then mowing them down every year for about 30 years now. What I've noticed is that the older ones still come back, but over they lose some of their pigment, and I don't think the bloom time is as long. I do try to wait to cut them down until the flower heads have withered, which is usually around the end of May or beginning of June for me in southern New York. I'm not advocating that people should do that, but if you have to cut them back for some reason, don't panic. I don't fertilize them, I don't water them, I don't deadhead them, and we plant them about 4 inches deep, not digging individual holes but using the scatter method and digging a big hole. They're darling little workhorses and don't mind a bit of abuse and neglect 💚
I think it's great to hear how resilient daffodils can be - as you say, darling little workhorses!
I like daffs more and more....they are so reliable. This Spring I seemed to have a lot more than last year! They are also good value. I have had some lovely results with " bulk buy bargain packs" you can more or less sort the bulbs into groups before planting just by studying their shape and colour This has worked well for me. Thanks for the tips.
I have ordered some double daffodil bulbs. I wonder if I have chosen a finicky, less reliable type to try, but they are lovely in the catalog. Regular daffs do very well here in the Pacific Northwest.
I think it's always good to try some new plants - I suspect they'll be absolutely fine.
When I took the garden over from my parents (who still enjoy it, but because of age cannot garden themselves), I completely redesigned the paths, which left me with about 1200 (!!!) daffodil bulbs (the simplest, almost wild variety). I painstakingly planted them along the new paths, in lines, about 2 inches apart. The first two springs they looked a bit pathetic; many did not bloom at all. Now they are clumping out and getting better each year.
I also plant a lot of daffodil bulbs bought from nurseries or imported from Poland and the Netherlands. They are gorgeous, of all imaginable colours, sizes and types. And quite expensive here. So I always plant them in baskets, in clumps, and dig out after the leaves go dry, to replant in October.
My garden is in St. Petersburg region, Russia. We still have snow and a lot of water, and I can't wait to see them bloom, which will happen in late April - May.
That sounds beautiful
Ive always loved Daffodils! ❤
Invaluable 🙏🏻💚
Thank you!
Thank you for this helpful information. I think I’ll try growing some daffodils for the coming year.
As always great advise. My garden thanks you .
Nothing is more delightful than seeing swaths of daffodils blooming in the spring (Wordsworth was right). I have been planting them by the hundreds in my beds, the edges of lawns and in my woods and ravines. I have rocky soil and I have not always been able to plant them as deeply as I would like but they have still bloomed for me. The only time I have had daffs fail was when I planted them where, unbeknownst to me, water collected during the winter. They are tough plants but they don't like soggy soil. The bulb companies usually have good information about which daffs are best for naturalizing. There are also good mixes either for a succession of bloom or for a particular theme. I plant the smaller, more delicate types and those with complex double blooms or fragrance in the front of the borders. Larger more dramatic daffs go where they will be seen from a distance. I bought "Gigantic Star" this year, we will see whether it lives up to its name planted high on a wooded slope! Thanks for doing the survey on bulb advice -- since I plant a lot of bulbs I have dispensed with fertilizing and watering and haven't noticed any diminution in performance of the plants. Glad to know I'm not missing something.
Thank you!
Always exciting to plant bulbs in the autumn! I like all kinds of bulbs, but as you said tulips are easiest in pots. As far as daffodils go, I have a lot of Tete-a-Tete, because they are early and great next to my hyacinths. I also have Thalia and Geranium, and this year I will add Barrett Browning, because I love the ones with orange centers.
I was just looking at Barrett Browning, it looks lovely.
This Fall I ordered tête-à-tête as well, for the lawn. I practice No Mow May, so all should be well, in Ohio USA
@@TheMiddlesizedGardenYes, can't wait!
@@rickwalker5203 Illinois USA!
I grew a few tulips in pots and around 2000 daffodils bulbs in border fronts . I have now from Dutch Bulb co planted yesterday over 1000 new bulbs .As you say they never left you down
2000 is quite a lot of bulbs to plant!
Such brilliant advice and tips Alexandra! There's such a wonderful variety of daffodils that there's always something to suit everyone. What more welcome sight is there, after a long Winter, than nodding heads with buds appearing in Spring with that first hint of colour just before they bloom.
Daffodils show us that Spring has begun to arrive. I will have to look up Wordsworth"s poem, which I thought trifling when I was in college, but might better appreciate now.
Yes, they are a real beacon of hope
I've just picked a large vase full of daffodils for my kitchen table lol it's spring here in NZ!
Daffodils are my go-to bulbs. The creatures leave them alone, you can plant them almost anywhere, they multiply rather than fading away, some have wonderful scent, and the maintenance is next to nothing. Plus, they're comparatively cheap. Also, I use them to protect my tulips, which the creatures devour if planted on their own. Favorites are Dutch Master, Golden Echo, Ice Follies, Quail, Thalia, and poeticus. If you pick a good selection you can have some blooming from February through May.
Lovely selection
Inspiring. The “Flock Finger Lakes” channel recently posted a video about buying bulbs in bulk for mass planting. That info goes nicely with what you provided here.
Love your choice and type of information given in these presentations ! I live in Raleigh, NC and love gardening. However, am constantly trying to improve my knowledge of all things “gardening “. Thanks for the time and research that goes into the preparation for your program.
Thank you!
Four years ago I started to plant daffodils in the boulevard in front of my house and the neighbors tell me how they enjoy walking past to see them in bloom. Since we fertilize our lawn with organic matter I assume that's how my daffodils are getting a feed each year? Your video has inspired me to purchase more bulbs and keep on planting.
Yes, the organic matter will be helping, and also daffodils are pretty easy going. I rarely feed mine and they carry on blooming.
I’m slowly working on making a meadow of our field and I added daffodils last year, for an early splash of color. They were wonderful 😊 I never used to like them because I only ever saw the plain yellow, but I now use them everywhere because of their hardiness and deer resistance. Also, who knew there were so many beautiful varieties?! I do now and I add more every year. I’ve purchased a ProPlugger (US product) and it makes the job sooo much easier in my heavy clay soil. Augers are hard to use in heavy soil, in my experience.
PS, I’ve head that phosphorus, the element that bulbs are purported to need the most, doesn’t move well (or at all) in the soil, so it’s possibly pointless to add “bulb fertilizers” after the fact on top of the soil. I think you’re right that building good soil is the main thing, both for bulbs and gardening in general.
I think that's probably right, I sometimes think recommendations to add fertilisers get repeated without anyone really questioning it.
Fertilizer does not affect the flowering of the current season because daffodils use the reserve stored in the bulb, however it’s very beneficial for “replenishing” the bulb for the following year’s flowering.
It’s true that phosphorus has very little mobility in the soil that’s why, as a general rule, it’s advisable either to mix it with the soil before planting or spread it in the fall. That way, by the next spring, the rain, the worms, microbes, and other natural processes will have time to move it to the roots of the plants.
Good morning Alexandra, you have really inspired me to try growing daffies again!! Thee are so many "superstitious" stories relating why these gorgeous little cup and saucer flowers won't bloom that I just gave up, I have to admit I am a "very" impatient gardener. If sprouting takes too long to my liking, I go and gently dig up around the bulbs to see what is their case for not sprouting, and 9 times out of 10, there are the signs of sprouting coming along :) patience is a virtue...... As I am in S Africa and our summers are quite hot, I will first try them in pots as I can move them to a more cooler part for the time being and play around and see what location will be best suited. I think you have covered all the aspects of happy daffodil planting and a good tip about the tulips, they are just too beautiful not to take care of. The deeper planting will also help the bulbs to stay a bit cooler as close to the surface might just be that bit too hot for them to handle. Gardening is always a challenge, but it teaches us patience and perseverance. For our climate in the Southern Hemisphere I think the merry month of May will be better suited for bulb planting. We are just in the start of our early summer, but I am looking forward to my autumn challenge next year Lord willing. Thank you for always sharing and doing your best to help us with our planting and planning, and your garden is looking great, the shrubs are doing so well and yes, planting daffodils under the lawn, really needs a patient gardener as they want to start cutting the grass and they are not prepared to wait unless you change your lawn type :) the no mowing type with the flat leaf. Do take care, go well, many blessings. Kind regards.
Great point on varying the bloom times, colors, and heights. You can have flowers for months this way! The only mix I’ve found that I like is a “pink” mix. It is truly lovely and all the types seem to work well together. JetFire is my earliest blooming variety and they withstand wetter soil as well. I shy away from the super double blooms as they tend to hang their heads or even break under the weight.
That does sound rather gorgeous.
Just discovered Ur videos just loving Ur videos merrilyn from Australia l watch videos like garden answers so it's so good to see British gardens and learn different ideas so thanku 😊🌺
Thanks and welcome
Thank you Alexandra, I will be planting some daffodils this fall. I planted tulips but do not like how long it takes for them to die back. I have alot of areas along our long driveway to plant the daffodils. Looking forward to seeing them bloom in spring
A lovely position for them!
Thanks for this video 📹 it's just what I needed today, now I'll go plant my daffodils
I still have a packet to go...
Awesome video content as always... thank you very much. What I have done the last few years is plant my daffodils with my darwin tulips in the ground as well as containers because I do have the deer rabbit and squirrels. I also like how it's almost like mini bouquets in your garden beds. So if you have two different varieties of tulips two different varieties of daffodils all within the same hole it's so beautiful!!!
That sounds lovely!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thanks!
I have also found that putting daffs around and among the tulips has deterred the deer (so far!) I wasn't optimistic as I have heard so many stories about people planting beds of tulips, having the tulips come up and just as they were about to bloom, the deer nipped off every flower. So far, so good with the mix'em up method. I like your idea for containers.
Very informative. I grow lots of daffodils because tulips go over too quickly in our climate or the varmints eat the bulbs but daffodils flower beautifully for me. I do find that the doubles hang their heads to low for my taste.
So timely! We just planted our new woodland garden in the backyard with many daffodils. We will also be planting a couple of whiskey barrel planters with them, as well. Thank you for the informative and helpful video.
Thank you for a very helpful video. I’ve just planted some tuplis in the ground but I like your idea about planting lots close together in pots. I will try this.
I’m with you on this, tulips die back so ungracefully!
although glorious in their prime....
Great advice,thank you. I have bought those snips on your recommendation,they're fabulous ,so I've ordered more as gifts for my gardening friends.
Great! I'm just about to buy another pair myself as I keep leaving the pair I have around the garden.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden that's a good idea, when you find a tool you love, get 2 ☺
Lovely video! Lots of good reminders, I´m one that tend to plant mine too shallow. I said this year: NO more bulbs, they always get eaten. Garlic, daffys all of them! Doesn´t matter if they are planted in the ground, boxes, pots. Still I have iris, lilies etc that are left alone year after year. So, saving this video...and there are going to be more bulbs :)
Thank you! I've got some squares of chicken wire (cut by my husband) and I place those over the pots after planting. Then I remove them as soon as the green shoots poke through as apparently once the bulbs have started to grow, they're no longer attractive to pests.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden So it works! I was thinking of that, have some pieces with very small pattern but was afraid I hurt the sprouts and the fourlegged ones would get to it anyways. Now I will certainly try it. Thank you! (And yes I went and got my bulbs, apricot and white😊)
This was terrific information, Alexandra! I love the white Thalias, and they do well here. San Diego can have hot days, even in winter, so early flowering varieties are best. We can (especially as we are slated for yet another "La Niña" winter) have weeks of hot, dry weather as early as April. In past years I've found pink daffodils; one had a large blooms with the back white and the front pink, and the others were all pink and ruffled, with several layers of petals. Thank you for sharing your past mistakes, and encouraging our dreams of spring. :)
Thank you! I think we are all bracing ourselves for another La Nina
Perfect timing. I just bought some wild israeli dafadil bulbs! Maybe i need more now! Now that i know i can plant under trees that loose their leaves!
I find that even if I think I've bought lots, I wish I'd bought more.
What a great video! Thank you!👩🌾
Thank you for great comprehensive tips on planting daffodils. I love them and enjoy them very much in my garden ❤️
Grass in Latvia is stronger and daffy flowers and is taken over by grass before plant leaves brown off. Then if rain cant mow tall grass. So lawns loo k a mess .I plant in borders and it loos just as good . Over 2000 bulbs from last year and year before .Fill gaps in all borders and are no problem .
William Wordsworth has a wonderful poem about daffodils.
If anyone wants to Google it, it starts I wandered lonely as a cloud.
In Northern Europe, daffodils are "zero maintenance" but we all look forward to them in Spring. They are the most beautiful plant in the world in my opinion, but not a weed. If you don't plant any, you won't have any. If you don't have any in your garden and your garden is coldish for 5 months then plant at least 5 bulbs, they will come back for years and years
Favorite reblooming cultivar here in central Georgia; "SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL"
The last couple years, in my border, once the spring bulbs have died back, I slip in potted summer plants so there aren’t gaps in my border and I don’t disturb the spring bulbs (snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, allium) but wonder if it could cause any problems for the bulbs. Oh and am I the only one who loves how she says “goodbye” at the end 😂.
Thank you! I don't think putting the pots in the borders will disturb other plants, as long as the pot aren't actually on top of them. But with bulbs, once the bulb foliage died back, the bulb is dormant underground, so it would be fine to put a pot on top (I have many friends who do), just remember to take the pot away before the foliage tries to emerge in late winter.
Where I live in NYS zone 5 for some reason it is always very windy. The fancy ruffled daffodils always get knocked down so I go for the simpler one and also those poeticus ones that have like no cup. And good drainage or else make the planting bed high.
Great tips
Superb
Thank you. I planted over hunder blubs last year but didn't turn out too good. This will helps. I will try again this year. Thank you
Hope it goes well.
I have planted the small, normal and ice follies daffodils in my first gardening year. They were beautiful with the next spring. But sadly my ice follies turned out to be regular yellow daffodils, so that was a bummer. Hopefully they will turn the right colour next spring. I also got a small type of daffodil, bride crown or something like that from my mother-in-law last year. I'm curious how it will look next spring.
Were the Ice Follies just the wrong bulb? We've had that experience a number of times ( bought red tulips, but they were yellow; bought calla lilies but they were Asiatic). These are just packaging or sorting errors.
@@MyFocusVaries it could be a sorting/package error. But I would like to have ice follies in the future for sure.
It sounds as if that was a labelling problem - that the company you bought them from labelled them wrong. That is surprisingly common, I've had it a lot with roses, and somewhat with dahlias. I think you may have to buy Ice Follies again! (I've just bought a pack of that very daffodil and am also looking forward to it coming up).
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I bought the bulbs at Lidl, the company who distributed the bulbs is a bulb nursery or some sorts. I will have to give the yellow ones away first, before I have room for the real ice follies. I have in my opinion way to many yellow daffodils anyway. I like the small tête-a-tête the best, together with the ice follies and the bridal crown I got from my mother-in-law.
I am going to try planting tulips in pots. I had given up trying to have them in my flower beds. We have lunatic squirrels who bite the blooms off the stems and leave them lying on the ground. *sigh* 😑
Lunatic squirrels 😆
I've been putting a square of chicken wire on top of the pot until the green shoots start to appear, after which apparently they don't like them.
I have grown tulips in pots. I had very good luck with Shogun, an early, multi-flowered Kaufman tulip. I had much worse luck with later tulips, Akebono and Virichic. So many variables, though: both winters were very mild (for 7b, where I live), and I neglected to water them at all. You want to plant multi-flowering tulips further apart than single-flowered types.
Thank you Alexandra. It is a joy to listen to your advise! Do dads like wet soil? My dear neighbor and his newly installed sprinkling system has already drown my salvia (it rotted) and I am looking to replace it with a small plant (or bulbs) that can stand the daily "rain". Cheers
Oh, dear, I'm afraid daffodils don't like wet soil any more than salvias do.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden yikes. Will figure it out. Thanks Alexandra
Great info here. Here in the states, people who live in warmer climates, are suggested to put their bulbs in the fridge, to give the bulb it's cold stratification period. My favorites are the double peaches and pinks, I think they're lovely planted with pure white. My second favorite bulb are grape hyacinth, every color.
That's a good tip. I love grape hyacinths too.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden
I asked Janey if I could share this with you. She made a very informative video about chilling your bulbs in warm climates. I thought you'd be interested, she's celebrating her 1 year on TH-cam. I wondered if you'd maybe do a video with her about chilling bulbs, she's in California, 9B.
th-cam.com/video/ZBTCfunDP4Q/w-d-xo.html&lc=Ugzuw-4NOETsBuy2ywh4AaABAg.9glFpT3KwiR9gmFBV7hFQR
I opted last year at this time to convert my teeny backyard garden to a bulb flower garden. It was a spectacular show this spring, but after the bulbs I planted as DAFFODILS (which I adore) came up as tulips because the pack was mismarked, I was SAD. But the tulips bloomed later and lasted a good amount of time for me to enjoy.
Mis-labelling is surprisingly common, but I suppose it's because bulbs look so alike when they're not in flower.
Great information…thank you. 🌷
Hello, I really enjoy your videos.Would you be able to do one on growing peonies? Many thanks.
I will definitely look out for a good authority, it's a great suggestion.
Daffodils make me so happy. I add more every year. I'd love a video on how you plant your tulips in pots. Maybe you already have. I'll check.
This has lots about tulips in pots: th-cam.com/video/yfnzPsEWuIE/w-d-xo.html
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thank you!
One question not covered is - with daffs or tulips in pots, should we keep watering until the leaves have completely died or can we leave them to die back quickly on their own with no water? Should we water the pots in to May/June?
Good point. I would keep watering the pots as normal until the leaves die down, they'd be getting ordinary rain if they were in the earth.
Don't throw your "blind" daffodils away. Separate them and replant in good soil with sun. In a year of two you should get the bulbs back up to blooming size if they are a fit for your area. If they don't like it there... then pitch 'em.
Thank you for this excellent and timely video, Alexandra. We dug up a lot of daffodils this year which had naturalized themselves in a garden bed. It was just too much work to get in between all the plants and deadhead the daffs, and the dying leaves looked rather unsightly. This fall I'm going to plant them in pots instead. Do you know if they have to be planted as deeply in pots as in the ground? And can I leave the pots outdoors? We have a closed in area under the deck, which is inaccessible to most animals, but still open to the weather.
I think they're fine in pots outside, daffs are pretty hardy. I'm not sure about depth, I think if they're too shallow then squirrels dig them up but you could always put some chicken wire over the top until they start to sprout. But I've seen people plant them quite shallow if they're not worried about that.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Chicken wire over pots-I never thought of that. What a good idea. Thanks, Alexandra!
👍
I've decided to plant tulips 🌷 in pots this year as well because the mice 🐭 like the bulbs and they just disappear.
We have that problem too.
Hello from Vancouver! We have unfortunately got the European narcissus bulb fly whose grubs eat the bulb, so our daffodils don’t come back 😢
Oh, that is such a shame!
Last year I planted mine in pots due to major renovations. They did quite well. I plan to leave them in the pots for their 2nd season, currently in my garage protected from the Texas heat. Should I remove them and repot or just leave them undisturbed until spring?
I'd just leave them. When they start to grow add some liquid fertiliser, as they'll have used up everything in the pot, but while they're dormant, just keep them in a cool, frost free place.
Can you help please I have a small patch where I would like to grow daffodils and tulips for my mum, however I am not sure how I can utilize the space whilst waiting for greens to dry down and use this space for growing summer flowers.
Iam just novice learning to garden.
Most people just plant around the dying leaves - that's what I do myself. The summer plants are often quite small at that stage and they grow bigger as the daffodils grow smaller. About six weeks after flowering, you can remove the last of the dying foliage and by then the bulb should have everything it needs for next year's flowers. It's happy to share a border with summer flowers as it's dormant and under the ground by then.
I did a bulb course at Dixter and they didn't even mention fertiliser.
Most companies don't...but the occasional one does...even quite an authoritative one...lovely to do a course at Dixter.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Yes, I highly recommend their courses and workshops.
👍👍✨✨
I have a lot of daffodils and tulips in my garden but I also have an inwelcome guest, namely a European water vole (I do hope that it is A vole, but it's rather unlikely). I have recently discovered its presence, the signs are unmistakable. This animal can destroy one's garden in a season.
Oh, dear, fingers crossed for you that it is just passing through.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thank you! It has visited the neighbours too (those with the real gardens, not just lawns), so it might be considering permanent residency in our street ;-)
I have ordered some double daffodil bulbs. I wonder if I have chosen a finicky, less reliable type to try, but they are lovely in the catalog. Regular daffs do very well here in the Pacific Northwest.