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Blind Daffodils

We have quite a lot of Daffodils in our back garden lawn spread out and the last few years they've all come out (since we've lived here as previous owners planted them).

This year they pretty much all came up blind...

Can I/Do I cut the leaves down or do they have to be left, tied up etc till the go over/dry up? They're a right pita to mow around from my perspective but the wife likes them image

Posts

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    If you want them to flower then leave them alone, do not even tie them up. They need the leaves to make food for next years flowering. Might even be worth feeding them with a low nitrogen foliage feed too.

  • DaisydayDaisyday Posts: 373

    I have had a few which have come up blind and I wonder if the bulbs just get old and worn out. I will certainly try a feed Berghill and see what happens next year .

  • Ok mowing around the leaves it is then image

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    The other thing to do is mow them and plant new bulbs in the autumn - they are incredibly cheap (think mine were about a quid for 50 from the supermartket!)  You are almost guaranteed flowers then! image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • BrummieBenBrummieBen Posts: 460

    blind usually means no love!!! people are so averse to folliar  feeding in spring.. people plant bulbs and expect them to come up year after year with no love whatsoever.. There is only so many flowers that bulbs can make with no food people.. Usually I give my bulbs lawn feed (YES LAWN FEED) once a week, once the frosts aren't too bad, and especially after dead heading.. usually find a million 'blind' next year, but repeat, and the following year 5 million gazzillion flowers.. if you continue the feeding, even more the next year then it's time to start digging and shifting :P You can give your bulbs a massive home compost mulch (obv well composted stuff) when you plant as a sort of insulating food layer.. As long as you plant the bulbs on a nice 2 inch bit of gravel, as in under the bulb as you plant, you will be good to go. You will always get some blind, but this should indicate how well they are proliferating and you should ALWAYS have the original bulbs flowering, the blinds should be the 'extras' you have grown from being so great :P  Food folks, we all need it, especially bulbs.. I continue adding folliar feed after I've dead headed.. find the bulbs then get rather massive for next year. and the bigger the bulb, the more large the flowering.. 

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