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Daffodil and tulip bulbs
wakeshine
Posts: 975
Is there a way to tell the difference between daffodil and tulip bulbs? I have three trays of a mixture of these two, all dried which were taken out of the groudn too early. There must be about 100 bulbs or more and the majority are probably daffofils. To be honest they all look pretty similar to me. I really should have put them in bags/boxes and labelled them but I didn't.
Thinking of planting them into pots and see what comes up...if I sort them into similar looking groups and post a photo, will anyone be able to help identify daffs vs tulips?
Last edited: 18 September 2016 22:23:56
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yes, they don't look the same at all.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thank you Nutcutlet - will post photos in the next couple of days! They are, by the way, very dry and messy. I will tidy them up, sort them as best I can, and photograph.
Daffs look like elongated small onions; tulips have a smoother, shinier outer layer with some flattish bits and usually some white bits showing through.
Er, none of these are shiny as they are probably quite old bulbs lol! I will have another look tomorrow using your description and see if I can tell. Thank you Steve 309. This description is helpful for me for when I do the sorting.
The ones above are tulips, below are daffodils (much rougher skin)
chicky and Steve are right - tulips are much smoother - almost conker like sometimes. Daffs are knarly - like old gardeners....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone, the pictures are really helpful Chicky. I haven't got around to sorting or photos yet. Will do that soon.
Think of tulip bulbs as gorgeous haute couture creatures, elegant and classy. Daffs on the other hand have a decidedly homely look like onions in layers of hessian.
Okay so here goes with my groupings:
Groups 1 and 2 - mostly daffodils?
Group 3 and 4 - tulips?
Some these bulbs are bulbils I think, smaller than cloves of garlic. Not sure what to do about these - will they grow?
Some random other bulbs/things found which didn't seem to fit into tulips/daffs - any ideas? What is the small purple bulb on the right hand side of the first photo in the above set? And the middle one which has a flat bottom with a depression in the middle? And what are the three round ones which look like baby potatoes?
It looks like there could be a wonderflower bulb somewhere in any of these groups also as I vaguely remember putting it in when the plant died. It was affixed to the label with the rubber band but must have come loose. If anyone is familiar..photo of the tag above. At the same time, it may not be there. But this why I haven't thrown the whole lot away because I wanted to try and find the wonderflower bulb, as well as save some tulips.
The daffs I know may not be worth saving (?)
Thank you all with descriptions, and with any further identification help you can give.
the top 2 pics look like all daffs
the next 2 mostly tulips
the last probably alliums
What's a wonderflower? clivia?
daffs are more likely to be worth keeping than tulips. don't bother will little off-shoots of tulip
In the sticks near Peterborough