Daffodils

[DUNKS]

Are we all doing it wrong? My neighbour who has a real dragon of a wife cuts his daffs down flush with the ground as soon as the flowers begin to droop. She wont have the untidy stems left to die. I did warn him when he first did this perhaps ten years ago but he has done this every year since and he always has a lovely display. They are up again now and in full bloom. They seem to last pretty well too.

Any comments.

Edited Tuesday at 09:45 by DUNKS

[old'un]

I sometimes wonder if some of the garden rules are old wife's tales, I put some Nerine bulbs in about 6/7 years ago and only just found out they need full sun and well drained soil, well these bulbs have been giving lovely display every year and they are in partial shade and a wet corner of the garden, does make you wonder.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I was taught by my maternal grand father and my father to dead head and leave the leaves to put goodness in to the bulb until they withered.

I guess the ONLY way to tell would be to cut back half of them after flowering and leave the other half with the leaves on.

[ditchman]

my mum used to wait until the flowers dropped then tie the clump of stems into a single knot....

[johnphilip]

1 hour ago, ditchman said:

my mum used to wait until the flowers dropped then tie the clump of stems into a single knot....

Same here,  now the wife. Does. The same folder over and tie

[Cornish lad]

I Reckon it’s old wife’s tales ,my farmer mate has nearly 100 acres being grown on his land under contract for 3 years and there not touched since being planted started flowering certain varieties in mid January 

[Bigbob]

When the flowers start to fade i feed mine and leave them alone till the leaves fade go yellow and i hand pull them but last year they seemed to take a while and i thought i was a bit late getting the annuals in 

[London Best]

If anything grows in my garden I mow it!

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

If anything grows in my garden I mow it!

ahhhhh the old slash & burn apocolyptic monoculture..............have you a stand at this years Chelsea flower show......in the section of "Ground Zero/DDT "

[London Best]

2 hours ago, ditchman said:

ahhhhh the old slash & burn apocolyptic monoculture..............have you a stand at this years Chelsea flower show......in the section of "Ground Zero/DDT "

Don’t get me wrong, I like to see a nice garden, just so long as somebody else has done all the work. I don’t mind work if it stays done when you’ve done it. But in a garden it’s never ending and I don’t enjoy it. So I mow it. 
 

(John Deere Rules, OK)

[Bigbob]

On 04/03/2025 at 17:28, ditchman said:

ahhhhh the old slash & burn apocolyptic monoculture..............have you a stand at this years Chelsea flower show......in the section of "Ground Zero/DDT "

The Chelsea chop where you cut back 1/4 to 1/3 of a flowering bush to extend the flowering season 

[100milesaway]

I dead head mine after flowering and then chop down to ground level about a month later, but then I live in the Yorkshire Dales. Most of the farm entries here will have a superb display of daffs by the dry stone walls. Today I  went for a drive around the North York Moors and went up into Farndale, just North of Pickering and in about a months time the wild daffodils will be resplendent along the beck from Church Houses for about a mile and a half down the Dale. Years ago I read a book about a couple of elderly ladies who bought Looe Island in Cornwall and they had a very early crop of daffs at the start of February and made a good income out of this, I think  that they got students in as extra help.

From Auntie 

[Dave-G]

On 04/03/2025 at 13:00, Cornish lad said:

I Reckon it’s old wife’s tales ,my farmer mate has nearly 100 acres being grown on his land under contract for 3 years and there not touched since being planted started flowering certain varieties in mid January 

Up top of Strawberry lane Hayle?

[Cornish lad]

No Dave out Newquay way my bird