Â鶹Éç

Garden clinic  permalink

vanishing daffodils

• Message 1. 

  Posted by ceejay0609 (U15196783) on Saturday, 24th March 2012

  Last year we planted a number of daffodil bulbs into our wildlife lawn area. This year only 2 have come up - and those flowers have promptly been eaten. I was very careful to let the leaves die down before mowing - in fact because I had sown wild flower seeds with the grass I didn't mow it until late summer. The wild flowers weren't a great success either - the ox-eye daisy type was prolific, clover is doing well (didn't need to sow that one!) and that was about it!
  
  What could have happened to my daffodils???

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message1

• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Saturday, 24th March 2012

  Which daffodil varieties did you plant? If it was the wild daffodil (narcissus bulbocodium) they can be reluctant to thrive. If it was one of the more standard varieties, then last year's dry spring is probably to blame - it was too warm and dry, meaning that daffodils didn't get a chance to form their flowers when dying back. If we have the same problem this year, you might find that watering them helps.

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message2

• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by doganduck (U14257439) on Saturday, 24th March 2012

  I mentioned this problem to local expert, and she mentioned a narcissus fly, which nips down the holes left by dying leaves, lays eggs on bulb - result is no flowers and thin leaves. Have yet to verify, but she suggest raking bit of top soil over area to fill in holes and wait for recovery. ?

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message3

• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Saturday, 24th March 2012

  Narcissus fly would result in only a few grass-like leaves, and the bulb is unlikely to recover. Prevention - covering the holes after removing leaves - is the only thing that you can do, together with not re-planting in the affected area.

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message4

• Message 5

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by ceejay0609 (U15196783) on Sunday, 25th March 2012

  The daffodils were just a mixed bag bought from the garden centre - nothing special. The next question I was going to ask was whether I should plant again next autumn. Don't like the sound of narcissus fly - yet another pest! I have had a lot of slug damage - my garden is brand new - it was just a field 4 years ago. We have been lucky enough to build again right next door to our old house. The garden is still quite empty - we have covered alot of soil with weed surpressant material and bark to keep the work down. It is going to be far too expensive to plant up the whole area. I think perhaps we have had more trouble with pests because of this - we had excess cabbage white caterpillars the first year of planting my vegetable garden, then excess dock beetles last year. Slugs ate just about everything they could including my potato haulms.

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message5

• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Sunday, 25th March 2012

  You could certainly plant some more in autumn, yes - that way you'll have flowers whether the first batch plump up enough or not. Make sure that you plant with twice the bulb's height of soil above it, and remember that the soil will sink a bit after planting. I wouldn't have thought that you have narcissus fly unless you've been very unlucky.
  Bark chippings - excellent idea in your situation. They keep the weeds down whilst allowing water and air through. Don't worry about them taking nitrogen out of the soil, either - that isn't an issue unless your plants are planted very densely, and even then I'm not convinced that it's significant as it only affects the very surface of the soil.

  Link to this forum: vanishing daffodils

  Report message6

Back to top