| Description | Daffodils are among the easiest and perennial of all the spring flowering bulbs. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | All Plants, Bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizoms, etc. |
| Sunlight | Most Daffodils prefer full sun but will tolerate some shade. |
| Moisture | During the spring and growing season Daffodils require adequate moisture. During the dormant time little if any is needed. Daffodils should seldom if ever need to be watered. I have planted a few bulbs and only once in the fall did I water because of the dry conditions. |
| Soil & Site | Daffodils need well drained soils and grow best in deep rich sandy soils but will grow happily in average garden soils. Poorly drained, compact clay soils are the least favorable. Heavier or poor soils can be amended with organic matter to improve the growth of the bulbs. |
| Temperature | Daffodil cultivars need a minimum of 14-16 weeks below a certain temperate to make the bulb go into vernalization or the bud forming stage. |
| Flowers | Daffodils are monocots so the flower parts are in three's or multiples of three's. Flowers have: 3 sepals, 3 petals, a corona (center cup or trumpet) and is bore on a leafless stalk called a scape. There are many colors besides the traditional yellow. Color pallet is: yellow, white, peach, pinks, reds, and bicolors having different colored petals, sepals and corona.. |
| Leaves | The leaves are strap-like originating from the top of a bulb. |
| Stems | bulbs |
| Roots | fiborous |
| Dimensions | Size varies with the cultivar smallest are about 4-6" tall with the largest reaching 18". Spacing also depends on the cultivar. |
| Maintenance | Daffodils are planted in September through October and into November depending on the fall weather (Zone #5). Larger bulbs should be planted 6"-8" deep, where as medium bulbs 3"-6" deep. |
| Propagation | Species Daffodils will produce seed that comes true to type where as hybrids need to be propagated asexually by division of the clump or cutting the bulb (parting, chipping, twin scaling) into pie shaped pieces each with part of the basal plate. |
| Misc Facts | A lot of confusion arises over the name. Narcissus is the official genus name for this group of bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family. Daffodil is the English name that is commonly used instead of Narcissus and they seem to be interchangeable. The colonists brought Jonquils with them and this term seems to interchanges with Daffodils. The Royal Horticultural Society of England has a classification system for Daffodils and Jonquils are the 7th division of 12. The word Narcissus is named after a Greek boy, who was admiring himself in a reflecting pool, fell in and drowned than turned into a yellow nodding flower. The Narcissus bulb contains poisonous alkaloids |
| Author's Notes | If you have deer or other critter problems, most will not eat Daffodils. I found this out early in my landscape career. |
| Notes & Reference | #64-Daffodils for North American Gardens Brett And Becky Hearth) |
Cart
