FLIMBY: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

This is another installment in our weekly series, Flowers in My Back Yard, dedicated to blooming plants.

Prompted by warm temperatures and rain, daffodils came out early this year. So did scores of other spring-blooming bulbs, nature’s signal that a new season is coming soon.

Daffodils, which “naturalize” easily in the garden or the countryside, may rank among the all-time easy-care flowering plants. Plant them once (preferably in early fall) and they’ll pop up reliably for years, sometimes decades to come. Given the right conditions, they multiply year after year, turning a modest original investment into many springs of massed blooms.

Daffodils love our Northern California climate and come in a wide range of shapes and color combinations. Divided into 25 species, daffodils include more than 30,000 named varieties.

Another plus: Deer and squirrels won’t eat them. In fact, daffodils can act as a deterrent to unwanted pests.

Unlike tulips (which usually need pre-chilling before planting), daffodils and other members of the narcissus family get enough cold just sitting in the Sacramento soil. Temperature is key to daffodil bloom. They need at least 10 weeks of temperatures below 45 degrees. (That’s cumulative chill hours; not consecutive days.) That chill sets the bloom.

But it’s warmth that triggers those first flowers to appear. Afternoons in the upper 60s are a wake-up call, prompting daffodils and other bulbs to sprout and grow rapidly. They’ll keep flowering in waves (depending on their variety) until temperatures hit the 80s or the bulbs run out of blooming energy (whatever comes first). Usually, that’s sometime in early April.

What to do with those straggly remains? With spring bulbs, pruning off spent flowers usually is a matter of aesthetics. But leave the leaves; that foliage still has work to do.

“Bulbs use their foliage to produce the energy they need to form new flowers,” according to the bulb experts at Longfield Gardens, a major U.S. bulb producer. “So, if you want your bulbs to rebloom, it’s important to leave the foliage in place until it has withered and turned yellow. When the foliage can be pulled away from the bulb with a gentle tug, it’s ready to go.”

Some bulbs will shed their foliage within days; others will hang onto their leaves until July.

“The foliage of early-blooming bulbs such as chionodoxa and scilla fades away very quickly,” notes Longfield Gardens’ bulb experts. “Larger bulbs take longer; a few weeks or a few months, depending on the weather and the type of bulb.”

Trim off spent tulips right after they fade; quick deadheading will coax the bulb to rebloom next spring. Daffodils don’t need deadheading, except to tidy up a flower border or bed. Small bulbs such as crocus and snowdrops spread by seed, so leave those flowers to encourage multiplying. Alliums also tend to self-sow; if you don’t want lots of alliums, remove those flower heads.

Some gardeners tie up their daffodil foliage, but that can cut down on the leaves’ ability to photosynthesize and create energy for its bulb. It’s better to leave the leaves loose.

Longfield Gardens suggests hiding the ripening foliage by companion plants.

“In perennial gardens, you can let the foliage of other plants hide the leaves,” say its garden advisors. “Hostas, daylilies, nepeta and perennial geraniums are a few of the perennials that are good at covering the spent foliage of tulips, daffodils and alliums.”

Cornell University studied this method and came up with 15 best perennial and bulb combinations. See it here: https://bit.ly/3fDlL7g

“Another option is to plant your bulbs in a dedicated area where you won’t mind seeing the foliage,” Longfield Gardens says. “For tulips and hyacinths, this could be in a cutting garden or even part of your vegetable garden. Alliums and daffodils are ideal for wilder areas where their ripening foliage will be out of sight.”

If you have the time, energy and room, move the bulbs so their foliage can age gracefully out of sight,” Longfield Gardens suggests. “It’s also possible to dig up your spring bulbs immediately after they finish flowering and replant them – with their foliage still attached – in a holding bed. When fall comes, dig up the bulbs and move them back.”

My daffodils – and there are hundreds of them – are interspersed in my rose beds. The bulbs bloom after the roses are pruned, their foliage and flowers hiding the bushes’ naked, prickly canes. By the time the bulbs are spent, the roses are growing vigorously and starting to put out their own blooms – totally overshadowing the straggly foliage ripening at their base.

The Northern California Daffodil Society hosts spring shows, starting March 7 and 8 at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore. It also offers a wealth of knowledge about this beautiful bulb.

For more on daffodils: https://daffodil.org/