I am obsessed with daffodils!
In Florida, I never saw them grown and I never attempted to grow them. But in North Carolina, I feel like it must be an unwritten law that every yard must be overflowing with them in spring. They are everywhere! And they are gorgeous.
The most common type is the large cup yellow trumpet daffodil. But there are a ton of varieties. Inter-planting the varieties can create visually stunning garden beds.
The yard was completely bare when we moved in. No bushes, no flowers, nothing. My goal for the first year of gardening was to start lasagna method composting and get a rough idea how big I wanted my beds to be. I have completely lost perspective on how big things really need to be to look right on 11 acres. It is definitely a learning curve from 2/3 acre in hot, humid, sunny Florida to 11 acres of all-4-seasons North Carolina. Plus I have no idea what to do with clay soil. You can see in the photos grass clippings, straw, and mulch. I have many layers of compostable items under all that stuff. Hopefully next year I can till up some beautiful soil instead of rock hard clay. Ugg.
My first attempt at growing daffodils went surprisingly well. I tried a variety bulb bag from Longfield Gardens (https://www.longfield-gardens.com/) and every bulb came up!
Daffodils can also bloom at different times. Here, you can see the yellow trumpet has died off at the same time the frosty snow daffodil is in full bloom.
Here are two different cup varieties. The flower on the left is a double bloom yellow cheerfulness. The flower on the right is a large-cup pink charm.
This tiny guy showed up late to the party and bloomed well after the rest of the group had come and gone. This is a double bloom Erlicheer.
Here is a look at growing daffodils to add a beautiful touch of springtime glory to any garden bed.
When to plant daffodils:
The goal is plant the bulbs somewhere between September and late November. The soil needs to be cooled but still workable and not frozen. I planted mine in September (zone 7b).
Bulbs should be buried 3-6" deep and spaced 4-5" apart. I spaced mine out way more than that and truly missed the big collection of gorgeous blooms. I also only planted 25 bulbs because I wasn't sure if I was doing everything correctly. Next year I plan on going crazy with daffodils. Already warned the hubby he might need to pick up an extra shift to pay for all the flowers hehe.
Expect to start seeing green pop up in late February, early March. These plants are definitely tough. We had a surprise snow in mid March after all my daffodils had started to come up. It didn't seem to bother them one bit.
What to do after they bloom
To get beautiful blooms next year, you can leave the greens in place after the flower has been spent. Now, to be honest, I get varying opinions on this. Official nursery sites say leave the leaves to help the bulbs develop. Local flower growers told me to cut them back. I sort of did an in-between and let the green stay for another month or so before cutting them back. This was mostly because I didn't have anything else in the garden bed so it would have looked completely barren if I had cut them back. Once my gladiolas started growing, I cut the daffodils back. I'll let you know if that was the right choice!
Nurseries also say you can leave the bulbs in the ground for next year. If they start to become overpopulated in the bed, you can dig them up and divide the bulbs.
I love plants you can buy once and they give you back more plants the following year! It's like a really delayed BOGO!
My mom and sister also like to swap flower bulbs, so each year we separate bulbs and share with each other our extras. What a great way to help expand gardens without spending more money.
I hope you put a few daffodils in your garden this fall. Having them pop up in the spring is like a smile every time you see one. The little burst of yellow, whites, creams, and peach are the epitome of spring time!
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