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Daffodils

InTheMoorlandsInTheMoorlands Posts: 161
in Plants
We usually get quite a good display of these in the garden, tubs and window box.  The ones in the garden are OK but the others look a bit sad to say the least.  Presumably I can assume that these won't do anything now and need taking up?

Don't know what went wrong this year but something has!

At about 750 feet on the western edge of The Pennines.  Clay soil.  
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Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Were these new bulbs or old ones that had been in there for a time?

  • InTheMoorlandsInTheMoorlands Posts: 161
    New bulbs
    At about 750 feet on the western edge of The Pennines.  Clay soil.  
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Wer they planted very late or the pots not watered at all? New bulbs will usually flower come what may.
  • InTheMoorlandsInTheMoorlands Posts: 161
    Planted same time as usual - we have been doing this for twenty plus years. 

    We did have a dry spell around Fed.  but I watered the tubs and window box.

    Strangely the ones in the garden have done OK.
    At about 750 feet on the western edge of The Pennines.  Clay soil.  
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    This has been the same with us and many others in our village. The "old" ones in the ground have produced a fantastic display but the "new" ones in pots and in the ground are very reluctant to develop. We will leave them and hopefully have a late daff bloom.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I would take those out of the window box and plant in the garden.
    I don’t find them deep enough for daffs,  I had to lay them almost on the bottom. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Alfie_Alfie_ Posts: 456
    Is it normal for new daffs to nodd downwards. I have lots of new daffs in the ground and in pots. Only a few are fully open (which are facing down). There are a lot that are close to opening that look like they are going to do the same.

    These are new ones in the ground:



    These are new ones in a pot just about to come out and are already facing down:



    Any ideas? Thanks 
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited March 2023
    Perfectly normal for the buds/flowers to hang down.
    As they open they should face up more.

    Have a look here...
    https://www.google.com/search?q=narcissus+++buds&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj8hsTM_fz9AhVWpCcCHaoHDYMQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=narcissus+++buds&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDFCkBljbDmDrHGgAcAB4AIABcogBpQWSAQM2LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=2wAiZLytDdbInsEPqo-0mAg&bih=595&biw=1280&client=firefox-b-d

    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I agree re the window boxes @InTheMoorlands - troughs are rarely deep enough for daffodils, even smaller ones. The soil level is also very low in that trough - there can't be much depth there. Troughs/pots all need topping up through the year as everything settles  :)

    Potted daffs are much slower this year in my garden, even established, healthy bulbs. I put it down to the very changeable weather - ie much milder weather until later in autumn, then wet/freeze cycles, and the size of the swings between temps. Mild again through Jan/Feb then back to freeze/thaw in March. They don't know whether they're coming or going. Most of mine will be later than usual. Roots freezing then thawing and that cycle repeated is very difficult for them when they're in containers.

    Tulips have been disastrous. I lifted some potted ones yesterday and a good bit of the rootball was still frozen from the night before. They've been damaged even more than daffs  because of the changeable conditions. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited March 2023
    1.  Many flowers evolved to point down.  Usually they have been bred or selected to look more upwards.  We like our flowers to face us.  Similarly, we like our cats and dogs to look like babies.  Not always an aesthetic improvement.

    2.  Daffodil roots are not frost hardy*.  I lost all my terrace daffodils in a normal winter in Belgium, near to Brussels.  When I came to empty the contains, the bulbs were an uggy mush.  A British winter like the one just finished would do the same. We don't know where you live, moorlands, but I guess there is clue in the name; it may be colder up there.

    * As Fairy says, and as I know from food-science, the number of cycles is as significant as temperature.  I'm sure that daffodil bulbs can take a single exposure to -2ºC, but a few cycles to -5 and back would be quite different.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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