Do I need to dig up daffodils every year: timing, care and storage

Do I need to dig up daffodils?

To determine how often you need to dig the bulbs out of the ground, you need to pay attention to the following facts:

Every year, several children grow on each flower bulb. This allows daffodil lovers to significantly increase the number of tubers on their plot of land in a short time.
If you do not replant for 5 years, the bulbs grow close to each other, and this negatively affects the flowering of daffodils. Therefore, it is recommended to periodically divide the roots and replant the plant.
Flowers easily tolerate the cold season, so there is no need to dig up the bulbs for winter storage. Most flower growers remove rhizomes from the ground every year for preventive inspection and propagation.
When caring for daffodils, you need to pay attention to the size of the bud. If the flower has become small and the plant seems lethargic and weak, this signals possible diseases of the bulbs. In this case, after the flowering period, the tubers need to be dug up, inspected, the root system must be disinfected and the infected areas removed.

Experienced flower growers do not advise removing daffodil bulbs from the ground every year, without good reason. Since with frequent replanting, the plant may stop flowering for several seasons or produce small buds.

Why dig?

Daffodils reproduce using bulbs. During the season, different varieties of flowers can form from 2 to 6 daughter bulbs instead of one. Gardeners love these plants because they do not require annual replanting. Usually, digging up and planting daffodils is intended to be a time for moving the plant to a new location. Over 5–6 years of growth in one area, a flower is capable of forming a nice lush bush with many flower stalks.

Flower growers often try not to disturb plants due to the capriciousness of some hybrid varieties. Having weakened due to frequent digging and subsequent replanting, such flowers may not produce buds the next year.

But daffodils need to be replanted, at least not so often. Growing bulbous “mothers” with children need free space and sufficient nutrition. Thickened plantings are often a signal to “move” to a new place. If the flowers grow in a circle, then they need to be planted for 2–3 years. Daffodils planted in rows live in the same place for up to 5–6 years.

Why is wintering harmful for daffodils?

Almost all types of this beautiful flower tolerate cold well when outdoors and do not need to be stored outside the flowerbed. Covering with a small layer of mulch and dry leaves is recommended only in case of replanting or changing the place where the plant is flowering.

Taceta varieties need mulching every year. Terry and imported daffodils require the same care. Mulching helps preserve tubers even during periods of lack of rainfall. Therefore, experienced flower growers recommend using this method of protection during the winter months, even for hybrid flower varieties that are highly frost-resistant.

Characteristics of a narcissist

The primrose bulb is ovoid in shape and covered with brown scales. A flower grows in one place for more than one year. Children appear around him, each of which quickly becomes an independent plant. The leaves of the flower grow from the root; they are long and narrow and bluish-green in color. In April - May, the narcissus throws out a long peduncle, at the top of which a flower appears, reaching 4-6 cm in diameter. The plant blooms for about two weeks.

For your information! Narcissus is considered a medicinal plant. Its flowers contain essential oils, and its bulbs contain alkaloids. These components are used in perfumery and folk medicine.

When is it time to dig

When the time has come to transplant daffodils, in order to avoid a lack of flowering in the new season, it is necessary to accurately determine the time to dig up the tubers.

Do I need to dig up tulips every year?

It is necessary to dig up tulip bulbs at the end of June or at the beginning of July. You can do this later, for example, at the end of August or September, but by this time the locations of the bulbs will not be so easy to find. Some will definitely remain to rot in the ground. You need to catch the moment when the above-ground part of the plant turns yellow and begins to dry out. Using it we can easily detect a bulb in the soil.

The onions released from the ground must be sorted: the resulting children should be separated from the mother's planting material. Then the onions should dry in the shade for 2-3 days.

We free the resulting material from excess scales, cut off the long roots and place it in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes, and after drying it again, it can be sent for storage. Safety will be ensured by a dry and cool room in which there is an active flow of fresh air. In the fall, the planting material will be ready for planting.

When asked whether it is necessary to dig up tulips for the winter, you can safely answer in the negative. Their bulbs have enough time to heal and rest from July until the day of replanting in the fall.

Precautions when digging

Basic recommendations for safely removing rhizomes from the ground:

It is necessary to dig up plant bulbs together with a large lump of earth so as not to harm them.
It is not advisable to use a large garden shovel, as there is a high probability of damaging the roots. It is better to use a tool designed for indoor plants.
Under no circumstances should you cut off the roots.
After the tubers have dried a little, you need to beat off the excess soil and start dividing the bulbs. This part of the plant is quite sensitive, so this procedure must be approached with extreme caution.

Attention! In order to remove excess soil, do not resort to the use of water. If out of all the tubers dug up for replanting, at least one onion is diseased, with a high probability, all the others will be infected.

Preparing daffodils for storage

We recommend reading our other articles

Zucchini Iskander F1
Strawberry variety San Andreas
Vyuga cabbage variety
How to get rid of rats in a chicken coop?

In order for the bulbs to be stored well, they must be properly prepared for this procedure. To do this, after digging, the daffodils are laid out under a canopy or in any other cool and dry place in the shade, leaving to dry. When the top shell dries, the soil can be picked without any problems.

Important!

To quickly remove soil from the bulbs, do not soak them in the same basin of water. After all, if one bulb is sick, the disease will be transmitted to everyone else through the water. It’s better to dry the bulbs, then the soil will crumble on its own.

Clean bulbs are inspected for damage

Clean bulbs are inspected for damage. If there is damage, you must immediately put such bulbs in a separate box. Soft bulbs are not suitable for further cultivation; they can be discarded immediately. If there are signs of rot or pests, you can try to cut them back to healthy tissue and sprinkle the cut area with wood ash, but the chance that such a bulb will take root is small. Most often, gardeners simply throw away or burn damaged planting material.

All healthy bulbs should be washed and soaked in a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate for 15 minutes. After this procedure, drying is carried out. The bulbs are stored in a ventilated, warm place for 2-3 weeks.

Interesting!

To make it easier to navigate, it is necessary to sort the bulbs by variety before inspecting, washing and drying. If this is not done immediately, the varieties will be difficult to distinguish later.

How to properly store daffodil bulbs

To preserve the dug up bulbs until spring without harming them, you should follow several recommendations.

Daffodils must be laid out in the open air and given time to dry thoroughly. It is necessary to avoid direct sunlight on the plant, as it can be burned. It is also undesirable to keep bulbs in the open air during the summer rains.

After the flowers are completely dry, they are moved to a cool and ventilated room until planting.

Choosing a storage location

A cellar, barn and other household buildings are suitable for this. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the air temperature in the storage; it should not exceed 15-16 degrees Celsius.

It is worth noting that flowers need constant air circulation during storage at home. Therefore, they are placed in open boxes or drawers, laid out in rows. It is strictly not recommended to use plastic bags for storing daffodil bulbs.

Is processing necessary?

Immediately before planting, it is advisable to treat the plants to eliminate the risk of infection by parasites. To do this, place all the bulbs in a container with low concentration of potassium permanganate for no more than half an hour. You can also use special store-bought preparations for these purposes, such as Fitosporin or Maxim Dachnik. The rules for processing these products are described on the packaging.

How to dig up bulbs and where to store them

The daffodils have faded, what to do next with them is an important question for a beginner. Do not dig up the bulbs immediately after the buds wither. It is necessary to wait until the above-ground part of the plant turns yellow. As the leaves mature, nutrients are transferred to the bulbs and they become strong and resilient. It can take more than 2 months from flowering to the foliage drying out, especially if the weather conditions are damp. To prevent the bush from losing its decorative appearance and spoiling the appearance of the flower bed, thin leaves are woven into braids and hidden under the crown of other plants.

You should also not wait for the braids to completely dry out, since it is almost impossible to find bulbs without greenery.

Dig out the bulbs with a garden fork, being careful not to damage the planting material. After digging, the foliage is cut off from the bulbs and the roots are left.

To dry, daffodil bulbs are placed in boxes and placed in a cool place, protected from moisture and sun. After the soil has completely dried and fallen off, the bulbs are carefully separated one by one.

When to plant daffodils back into the ground

If you want to see buds in the next season, then the planting material must be sent into the ground in the fall. However, you need to pay attention to weather conditions and precipitation. It is advisable to plant the bulbs three to four weeks before the first frost so that they take root in the hole.

Another important point is that the air temperature before planting should not fall below +10 degrees for several weeks. In the middle climate zone, it is recommended to plant daffodils in the second ten days of September. As for those areas of the country where frosts come earlier and the climate is more severe (Ural and Siberia), planting in open ground must be done at the end of summer.

If you decide to plant daffodils in the spring, you need to select the period of time when the soil has warmed up to 7 degrees Celsius. Often this is mid-April, early May - depending on the region. But it should be remembered that there will be no flowering this season, since the plant needs to take root.

Regardless of the period in which the daffodils were planted, in order for them to decorate the flower bed every year and please the eye, you need to choose a site for the garden bed wisely. And also prepare the soil correctly.

It is advisable to choose a higher place for planting flowers, as the bulbs will quickly rot due to high humidity. It is also better to choose areas of the bed that are open to the sun and windless.

The soil is prepared in advance before planting. Depending on the type of soil, different fertilizers are suitable:

Heavy soil is diluted with sand and humus, as well as compost.
If the acidity of the soil is high, it is recommended to use wood ash or limestone flour for fertilizer.
A complex fertilizer - superphosphate - is suitable for all types of soil.

Bulbous flowers require drainage. To do this, pour a little sand into the bottom of the hole so that water does not stagnate in the root system of the plant.

Optimal timing for digging up a plant

The exact timing of digging planting material from the ground depends on the characteristics of the variety and the climatic conditions of the growing region. All varieties of daffodil are divided into three categories: early-blooming, mid-blooming and late-blooming. In addition, even in the same climatic region, weather conditions differ, which is why the growing season of the plant ends at different times.

Depending on the region

Regardless of the region of cultivation and its climatic characteristics, experienced gardeners do not recommend digging up daffodils immediately after flowering. This is done only after the leaf blades begin to turn yellow and wither. This sign indicates that the green above-ground part has completely supplied the bulb with the nutrients it needs for a successful winter.

According to the lunar calendar

Many gardeners, when determining specific dates for digging up bulbs after flowering, rely on the recommendations of the lunar calendar. The following dates are suitable for 2022:

June - 6, 11-13, 16-18, 28, 29.
July - from 10 to 15.

When to dig up small bulbous plants

Small-bulbous plants (white flower, candyk, scylla, muscari, snowdrop, scilla, pushkinia and chionodox) do not need to be dug up every year. They can grow in one place for 4-5 years. It is necessary to divide and plant muscari for replanting when the nests have grown greatly, so that they do not interfere with each other and the flowers are large. You can start working when the leaves of the plants begin to dry - in late summer-early autumn. If your muscari and other small bulbous plants are too young to divide and replant, simply trim off any yellowing leaves.

The dug up bulbs need to be cleaned of soil and roots, dried for several days in a well-ventilated area at an air humidity of 70% and a temperature of +17ºС. After this, the bulbs must be immediately transplanted to a new location. If planting is delayed, place the bulbs in a container of peat or damp sand to protect them from drying out.

In the photo: the process of digging muscuri during the flowering period.

When to dig up lilies

Lilies require replanting every 3–4 years. Due to the perennial subbulb roots, lilies have virtually no storage period: the loss of these roots can result in the plant not blooming after planting. Therefore, summer-autumn digging and dividing of lilies should coincide with transplanting and planting in a new place. If necessary, lilies can be transplanted at any time of the season without disturbing the ball of earth with roots.

Lilies from the groups Asian hybrids and LA hybrids

Lilies from the groups Asian hybrids and LA hybrids usually form a lot of children, so try to dig them up and plant them every year, otherwise they will greatly weaken the mother bulb, flowering will be weak and short-lived.

Lilies from the groups Oriental hybrids, Martagon, tubular and OT hybrids

Lilies from the groups Eastern hybrids, Martagon, tubular and OT hybrids usually produce few children per season. Therefore, lilies of these groups do not need to be planted every year; it is enough to plant them once every 5-7 years.

In the photo: lily bulbs prepared for sale after digging.

The time for transplanting lilies to a new place should coincide with the end of the growing season, when the lily bulbs get stronger after flowering. In the northern regions, the best time for transplantation is early autumn (late August - September), in the middle zone - mid-autumn (September - early October), in the southern regions - late autumn (October - November).

Timing for digging up lilies

In order for the plants to take root well in a new place and prepare for winter, it is better to divide the lilies at the following times:

— Asian and LA hybrids – from August 15 to 20;

— OT hybrids – from August 25 to September 1;

— Oriental hybrids – from September 1 to 5.

It is better to dig up non-winter-hardy tubular lilies every year for the winter, dry them and store them in a frost-free room.

Immediately plant all dug up lily bulbs in a permanent place.

If necessary, lily bulbs can be stored for a short time wrapped in sphagnum moss in a cool place, for example, in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. When digging up overgrown lilies, carefully separate all the resulting baby bulbs and plant them in specially prepared places.

How to plant lilies correctly >>>.

When to plant daffodil bulbs in open ground in the fall

It is recommended to plant the bulbs so that before the onset of cold weather they take root, but do not germinate. The most favorable time for this is from mid-August to mid-September. During this period, the soil remains warm, which is very important for daffodils.

The depth of planting holes for bulbs with a diameter of one to two centimeters is three to five centimeters, from two to four centimeters - eight to ten. It is recommended to add fine river sand with ash (in a ratio of 3: 1) and one teaspoon of mineral fertilizer to each hole and water generously. The distance between plantings is ten to fifteen centimeters.

In winter, plantings are covered with fallen leaves or peat.

Area for daffodils

Preparations for planting daffodils begin in July. The site is chosen to be flat, sheltered from strong winds and illuminated by the sun for at least a few hours a day. Flower varieties with bright orange or pink crowns are best grown in light partial shade so that they do not fade longer. You can plant daffodils between deciduous trees, right along the edge of the tree trunks, but it is better not to grow them in dense shade or near evergreens.

Places that are flooded during rains or melting snow are unsuitable for daffodils, and groundwater in the area should lie no higher than at a depth of 60 cm. As for the composition of the soil, loam with an acidity level of 6.5-7.0 is most suitable for daffodils pH. Heavy soils that do not allow moisture to pass through are contraindicated for these plants, as are quickly cooling sandy soils that are poor in micro- and macroelements.

When preparing a site, sand is added to heavy soils at the rate of 20 kg per m²; to light sandy soils, clay and humus should be added at the rate of 6-8 kg/m². Fertilize the soil on the site 2-3 months before planting with humus (15 kg/m²) or rotted manure (20 kg/m²). Organic matter is added for digging to a depth of 25-30 cm. Fresh manure cannot be used in the year of planting, and mineral fertilizers are added to the soil directly during planting.

Is it necessary to dig up and when is the imperial hazel grouse

Imperial hazel grouse bulbs can be grown in one place without replanting for 2–3 years. In nature, it grows in climates with hot and dry summers, and the bulbs need to warm up, just like in their homeland, in order to set a flower bud for next year. Therefore, to guarantee flowering, the imperial hazel grouse must be dug up every year and put away to dry at a temperature of +30°C until August. It is best to dig up bulbs when the above-ground parts begin to dry out - in mid-to-late June. You cannot delay cleaning; in humid summers there is a risk of bulbs rotting. Hazel grouse bulbs are devoid of covering scales, so during storage it is better to cover them with peat, sawdust or sand, otherwise they will dry out.

By the time storage ends at the end of August, hazel grouse bulbs begin to appear new roots and sprouts, long roots grow - this is a signal that it’s time to plant the bulbs.

In the photo: imperial hazel grouse bulbs prepared for autumn planting.

Bukhara hazel grouse (F. Bucharica) and stenantera (F. Stenanthera) also necessarily require digging and drying the bulbs every summer. This can be done by growing them in pots, removing the pot from the soil and putting it in a dry place until September.

The most popular and frost-resistant species of hazel grouse >>>.

How to propagate and keep different hazel grouse >>>.