What makes daffodils come up blind

RHS Christmas gifts. Help us achieve our goals Make a donation. Join the RHS today and support our charity Join now. Save to My scrapbook. Daffodil blindness. Quick facts. Jump to What is daffodil blindness? Symptoms Control Cause. What is daffodil blindness? Symptoms The foliage of daffodils emerges each year but no flowers are produced. Control To help avoid blindness, try the following; Always prepare the site well before planting , alleviated compaction, poor drainage, and adding moderate dressings of general fertiliser Select good quality bulbs Plant bulbs at two to three times their depth If planting daffodils in turf , ensure you select cultivars suitable for naturalising such as 'Peeping Tom', 'Fortune' or 'February Gold' Flowers should be removed or pinched off deadheaded as they fade Avoid tidying up the foliage by tying the leaves into a knot; leave them to die down naturally After flowering, leave a period of at least six weeks before leaves are removed or mown In dry conditions after flowering, water thoroughly until the foliage shows signs of dying down naturally Improve dry soil by mulching around the bulbs in early spring with organic matter.

Avoid planting bulbs in very dry areas under turf or near trees. A site that is initially suitable may become less so over several years due to encroaching trees and shrubs, making it more dry and shady Where flowering rapidly declines try feeding the bulbs.

As the growing points emerge in the spring apply Growmore at a rate of 70g per sq m 2oz per sq yd sprinkled evenly on the soil surface around the bulbs. After flowering , especially for container-grown bulbs, apply a high potassium liquid feed, such as tomato food at one to two week intervals from when the blooms have faded until the first signs of yellowing of foliage If overcrowded groups of daffodils are not flowering, lift them when the foliage dies back in the summer.

Improve the soil with organic matter and a little general purpose fertiliser e. Growmore at a rate of 70g per sq m 2oz per sq yd , and then re-plant the bulbs so there is a Replant small bulbs in more fertile soil e. There is no treatment and affected bulbs should be destroyed.

As the leaves die down, firming the soil around the stems and leaves, raking to fill in any holes and covering plantings with an insect proof netting, from mid-May until early July, may help discourage the female flies from laying eggs Diseased bulbs should be discarded. Bulbs planted under trees that have grown bigger can result in daffodil blindness occurring.

This is due to the soil becoming drier than it originally was when the tree was smaller. Occasionally narcissus bulb fly will attack the base of daffodil bulbs and eat the developing flower bud within. This too will cause daffodil blindness. Daffodil eelworm can have the same effect. In both cases the bulbs should be dug up and binned.

Do not add them to the compost heap! Planting too late can also contribute to daffodil blindness. Daffodils should be planted by late September at the latest as they will begin to make roots as early as August. Of course overcrowding of bulbs is a common cause but easily remedied by lifting when the leaves turn yellow and replanting the bulbs again but at wider spacing.

If you care to read more on daffodil blindness I recommend reading this. Flora and fauna have always fascinated me but it was a lifelong career in horticulture that filled most days. Having grown up on a farm where boyhood days were filled with discoveries of the natural world I soon found that my passion for plants — wildflowers at that time — would direct my career….

By Alan Down. In Bulbs , Gardening , Gardening tips. Shallow planting and planting depth Bulb Planting. Plant deeply! Log in or Sign up. I suspect this was due to overcrowding in the container and depleted nutrients as the compost hadn't been changed in some time. Today, we've completely emptied the container, topped up with lots of fresh compost and planted up with new plants. We didn't have the heart to throw away the old daffodils, and we have planted them in the ground, in another part of the garden.

We thought we'd give them a chance to flower next year. I read that you can feed with tomato feed, and know that we need to leave the leaves until they die back naturally to allow nutrients back into the bulb for next years flowers, but will 'blind' daffodils have a good chance, with improved conditions? Or is it a lost cause? We'll give them one more year anyway, but just curious if any of you have experienced this, and what the outcome was.

Sienna's Blossom , Apr 6, Friendly x 1. Redwing , Apr 6, I always give mine a couple of feeds with tomato feed as the flowers start to die back but there are a few reason why it could be.. Like x 2. Marley Farley , Apr 6, We had a lot of blind daffs that are now full of flowers. They are in the ground and happy now they have plenty of light after felling a few conifers. Mine get tom food and the foliage stays until its turned yellow and withered. My other potted ones had some blind ones but this was cured after being emptied and thinned out every 2 years and now give plenty flowers.