March 2, 2017 – Blind Daffodils       

          Now that the daffodils are up and blooming in my area it is time to take care of them in the spring.  Each clump gets a handful or two of 10-10-10 when they are up and about to bloom.  Then I put out markers, again, where they are situated so that I can fertilize them in the fall as well.   [I sure would like to know where all the plant markers go every year. I think the squirrels use them for floorboards in their nests high up in the trees.]

          On several occasions as we moved from state to state for my husband’s various plant manager jobs, we would have to rent places.  One lovely little log cabin was in Packanack Lake, New Jersey.  It was a small house with charm on a corner lot that was overgrown with Boston Ivy at the front section and at the back property line area woods with an underbrush tangle.  The first spring I noticed up in the woods the tips of daffodils and as the weeks went by, the leaves came and went with no flowers.

         

          I was a new gardener at the time and checked with the local garden shop [The Strawberry Blossom] and the proprietor said “You probably have blind daffodils from lack of care.  You need to feed them now and feed them again in the fall.  Better mark them now so you know where to fertilize in the fall.  And, under no circumstance mow the foliage down.  It has to die down naturally and turn brown.”   I heeded the gentlemen’s remark and purchased a bag of all-purpose fertilizer and sprinkled away then and again in the fall.

          I had great success the next spring - there were blooms.  Enough blooms to pick a vase full and enough so I had some left naturalized. So I did the same fertilizing program again that year. 

Alas, we moved, but my neighbor, Bella, informed me the next spring there were even more blooms much to her delight.  Her house was up the hill and her bedroom overlooked the back of the lot that was naturalized in daffodils.   In that instance it was just a matter of no one had fertilized them spring and fall.

We also rented a house until one was sold and this one was built.  The rental was a big old house on a residential lot and we moved into it in January and when I saw daffodils coming up – I was excited. BUT, they had no blooms. Since I knew what to do about blind daffodils, I sprinkled each clump with a gallon bucket of compost and a handful of 10-10-10 and marked them.  I didn’t touch the foliage, but I noticed that many of the neighbors would go out and braid their green leaves . . . which I was told didn’t help them feed nutrition into the bulbs.  However, I have seen it in a few gardening magazines over the years and I question if it is a good practice.  Later that fall I fertilized again, and viola – I had lovely daffodil blooms in the spring.

Since those two instances of revitalizing the blind daffodils with fertilizer I have read up on the subject and there are several other reasons they are blind.  If they have bloomed well for years and you have been feeding them regularly, you will probably need to lift and divide them.  I have also discovered that in locations on a steep slope, the soil can erode off of them and they are suddenly not deep enough.  You simply lift and move elsewhere.

So, don’t be blind to your duty to your daffodils – or they will go blind on you and not flower.   Part of your duty, or rather, your joy is to inspect them up close and personal.  Look at the foliage to see that it is green and strong and then allow it to ripen unmowed or unbound.  Take note of how many flowers you have in a grouping to see if your bulbs are becoming overcrowded.  Don’t forget it is your duty to fertilize them in the spring and in the fall and when they stop flowering – you can be assured they are probably overcrowded and need to be lifted and divided.

If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is too few.

- William Wordsworth