Tips for keeping the cheerful daffodils in your garden blooming and happy
At this point in the year, on the eve of spring, if you have not yet pruned back your roses or wisteria there is still time.
To simplify rose pruning, just ignore all that fresh new growth and shorten all the canes of traditional or tea roses to between 2-3 feet tall. Remove the three D’s: anything dead, diseased, or damaged and get rid of any branches thinner than a pencil or aiming in toward the center of the rose bush.
It’s also a good time to plant peas and sweet peas if your soil drains well. Other cool season crops that can be started in the soil this week are seeds of lettuce, Swiss chard, radishes and kale. Do not plant seeds that need warm soil such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, corn and peppers.
Soil that is in raised beds or containers with good drainage will warm up faster than soil in a low or damp area. In our climate, planting too early means the seed could rot if we have a rainy spell. Experienced gardeners wait another few weeks for the soil to warm.
Indoors you can start the seeds of annual flowers and warm season vegetables for planting out into the garden 6-8 weeks from now, when the danger of frost should be passed.
No need to worry about cool weather when it comes to daffodils, though. These spring blooming bulbs can handle the cold and the wet. But here are answers to some other questions about the cheerful yellow daffodil.
Q. I planted daffodil bulbs two years ago. The first year they bloomed well. The second year nothing but green leaves came up. Do I need to fertilize? — P.K., Olympia
A. Daffodils can go “blind,” or fail to bloom, for several reasons. The most common is that the foliage from the bloom in year one was not allowed to ripen and turn yellow. Tidy gardeners often want to cut back the fading leaves once the blooms are done but this is when the bulb is making flowers for next year.
If you can’t abide the messy foliage, try lifting the bulbs with as much soil as possible and moving them into a shaded spot where the green leaves can ripen and turn yellow and brown in peace. Then replant the dried bulbs in the fall.
Q. I planted daffodils in the fall. Nothing has come up. I was told no deer or mice would eat daffodils. So why did the bulbs not perform? — M.L., Tacoma
A. My best guess is poor drainage. A low wet spot means the bulbs will rot over the winter.
Another possibility is that the bulbs were already weak from improper storage or that they were baked to death in a hot car or shed before you planted.
Try again this fall and plant the bulbs soon after you purchase them from a nursery. Daffodils do great when planted in potting soil in large containers, if the pots have drainage holes. Planting in containers will solve the problem of poor drainage from soil that is heavy with clay or that stays wet over the summer.
Q. My neighbor has offered me some sweet little daffodils for my new garden. He says they multiply like crazy and flower very early, sometimes in February. In exchange, I must find out the name of his short (about 6 inches tall) yellow daffodils that flower in clumps. So help me out here. What are they called? — N.D., new gardener
A. Those loyal little dwarf daffodils are either “February Gold” or “Tete a Tete” (send a photo so I can better ID the variety). And you are doing your neighbor a favor if you dig up a clump, pull apart the cluster of small bulbs and replant them, spacing them 6 inches apart. When the clumps become too crowded, they stop flowering. Like all daffodils, they like good drainage. Let the leaves ripen and turn yellow after the flowers fade so they will bloom again next year.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.
