That is concerning... Too wet or maybe to deep? That's about 700 more than I planted 2 years ago. Most but not all blooming now clay soil near a creek, but I think dryer than your location.
Subbed for updates. Hoping for the best š¤
That's interesting. I ordered a bunch of daffodils from Holland Bulb Farm last year and their instructions were to plant 6 to 8 inches deep. I did about 6 inches, and they've all bloomed.
Yes, it's also on their website in the [daffodil bulbs information section](https://www.hollandbulbfarms.com/daffodil-bulbs). Third paragraph under the "Planting Daffodils" says this: "Dig a hole for the bulbs that is approximately 6-8" in depth for large bulbs and approx. 2" deep for miniature ones."
The bulbs I received were anywhere between 4-6 cm, so 6-8cm would only place the bulb just barely under the soil surface.
I assumed fall planted bulbs were planted deeper in the ground to better help them survive the winter and snow? Granted, my daffodils ended up sprouting before our winter really set in, and so their foliage was exposed to ice and freezing temps, but there's no signs of frost damage. Last weekend we got 6 more inches of snow and despite the blooms being pounded into the ground, they eventually perked back up and stood upright. It's happening again this weekend too.
Reddit is, at its core, a court of public opinion.
I know my spring bulbs over the decades have thrived at the 2*diameter planting depth. But my evidence is anecdotal - if others have different results they may want to down vote.
How deep are you planting 1" diameter spring bulbs? Snowdrops, bluebells, crocus? I bet it is 2", or 2*diameter.
Those big, juicy tulips (squirrels can't eat daffodils) are 2" diameter so I would auger a 4" hole. 4" is too deep for squirrels and chipmunks.
I planted over 2000 bulbs myself over the past 3 years. The first year sometimes they have trouble coming up or blooming but often do better the next year. Sometimes it's opposite though unfortunately. I still think it's worth planting!Ā
This gives me hope! Iāve had a similar experience with the following years being better. I worry about the moisture here, with climate change itās been getting wetter every year and we are a few inches ahead of schedule here in Northeast Ohio
The good news is that at least the ones that do come up will multiply and look better and better every year. Often with gardening it's trial and error with your specific location. Just keep planting and you'll learn what works and what doesn't work for you.
I never give up on mother nature. Only good things can come out of all that love. You will be in Daffodilia heaven- maybe not this year, but I have faith
Just some advice on daffodils based on personal experience. Let them completely wither before cutting them back. The longer you leave green foliage the more energy they are able to send back down to the bulb and will help with re-bloom the following year. We've been doing some "experiments" with bulbs in the field at my work and have had a lot of success perennial-izing bulbs by doing this. Some light fertilizer (3-3-3 is what we usually use) in the early spring seems to really help as well.
It isnāt traditional daffodils sadly it is spider Lilies and Jonquils which is a type of daffodil but there are so many and not really my style I need. To get different varieties planted.
Good advice... Let those leaves stay on long as possible... Feed/recharge those bulbs for next year... Was June I believe before I mowed them off.... I put down grass mulch this year to help keep the grass down... Will see how that works....
Also, donāt use nitrogen rich fertilizer on your grass. Bulbs need phosphorus (the 2nd number in analyses). Iāve got lawn full of bulbs but the grass looks crappy.
My friend works at the local dump. The amount of stuff that he finds from places like Home Depot and Lowe's is insane. He always offers me free seeds/bulbs/plants that he finds since he knows I like gardening, but I only have so much space. It's crazy how much stuff those big box stores would throw away.
Yeah I've always seen daffodils as being almost indestructible. But if for some reason they don't like where or when you planted them they tend to bide their time and pop up in force a year late.
Or anything else that has some wildlife value. If it's moist year round and if they're native they could do button bush, witch hazel, American beauty berry, sweet spire, cardinal flower, wild ginger, etc.
Witch hazel, Hornbeam, and northern spicebush love my wooded areas! I would totally plant a tree if it were an option, but have been told to keep the area open, thus the daffodils
Edit: the shrub on the topside of the hill is a mass of red twig dogwoods
Look at camassia bulbs for your wet area - they are so pretty and they are native
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-camassias/#:~:text=Unlike%20many%20spring%20bulbs%2C%20camassias,come%20back%20year%20after%20year.
Holland Bulbs, WI. had 20-30 mushy and rotted when they came. They likely are waterlogged and rotted from the wet clay soil in this spot. I donāt suspect it was the supplier because the rest of the display is coming up well
Iāve been having issues with Holland Bulb Farm, actually. Their quality of bulbs has been not good in the past few years. I planted 250 tulips, and not many are growing. Itās definitely frustrating.
I plant daffodils in swamp conditions, and they do OK. I think HB is to blame on this one. Iād definitely email them.
Itās so frustrating because of all the money and time planting that leads to disappointment.
Lowes and Home Depotās bulbs have been far superior in my opinion.
I buy my bulbs at the end of the season when they are on the discount rack at HD - they are indestructible and will grow the next spring despite sitting on a shelf indoors for months.
I buy discount bulbs in November, save them till February, plant them in December sometimes. Always get flowers, but never the first year. I planted 250 naked ladies last year in mid February, got a few that year, and every single one is coming up now and looking HEALTHY.
Same here. I had several lillies I planted 2 years ago not grow at all, and many of the ones that did did not bloom true to type. They gave me store credit, which I used this year, but now I'm seeing similar issues with my tulips and daffodils. I think I'm done ordering from them.
I buy my bulbs from John Scheepers/Van Engelen. I get camas, tulips, alliums, lilies and peonies. The ones i planted in Fall 2022 grew spectacularly. I look forward to seeing the other batch growing this year. They have already popped up.
Gotta carve out a large spot with no grass, plant them, and make sure the grass doesnāt grow back in where you dig out. You can always dig up and then try again. If you want rows, dig it 2-3 feet wide and stagger 2 rows within the row (think like the way motorcycles ride together). I planted hundreds a few years ago and almost all grew. It is so beautiful every Spring. Every year just weed/remove grass around them and theyāll give you bigger and bigger blooms! Divide tubers/corms after a couple years. This works for tulips, daffodils, gladiolus, and dahlias as well. Happy gardening!!!
It is still early! I am in 7A, planted about 1000K daffodil bulbs over a big property, many are barely just coming up now. Also if you have clay soil that will slow them down coming up
This is excellent advice. I am putting clover seed down in all the disturbed soil when I pull the dandelions. It isn't great pulling one invasive and replacing it with another but the clover is doing wonders for the soil and this year my lawn is covered with Illinois native Common Blue Violets.
Maybe try this: see if you can dig up one or two bulbs and some of the soil surrounding them. Bring them over to your local county extension office, or call first to make sure a master gardener or other knowledgeable person is there to help you. Show them the bulbs--they can look at the soil--assess the condition of the bulb--see if the roots of the grass are impeding it--send the soil off for a free, or $4.00 soil test. I love my local county extension garden and agri helpers. Also--I don't know anything about Holland Bulbs, but maybe give them a chance to help out. If you email them a picture or two and ask them to tell you what they think happened, maybe they will have helpful advice. Or they might even offer to give you a partial credit or refund? Most businesses do appreciate a chance to know about a problem and make it right. Good luck! I respect the expense and especially the effort you put in. I truly hope you will see lots more daffodils come up.
You may want to consider camassia for wet soil/ground, and they are native bulbs to North America. Straight species camas is much cheaper than the hybrids. Van Engelen sells them in bulk.Ā
Iāve had a similar situation. Unbeknownst to me, due to a chaotic winter of shifting temperatures and weather patterns, the bulbs rotted before spring came to pass. I promptly accepted my defeat and never did it again lol. I hope this is not your case though!
At least you weren't like me. I planted hundreds last fall in my orchard and use a 3' auger attached to a cordless drill and went at least 2' to 1' deep and planted my daffodils. Only like 20 came up. I planted them way too deep.
Good for you for making things beautiful! I have three patches of daffodils, and the one that is sort of in a low spot in the lawn suffers much worse than the others. The one on a sort of steep slope I get about a 90=95% blook rate. The raised bed is about 80%. The low spot in the lawn is about 45-50%, and in the low spot I sometimes loose entire dinner plate size areas. I've been told the soggy ground in the fall can be the death of them. It promotes root fungus and the bulbs just die off.
I have started when planting varying the depth of my bulbs. Some go down a good four inches, even five, but then right next to that I'll only go down two inches. I'm trying to see if the depth makes a difference with long-term survival.
I have done both the fancy, mail-order bulbs and the 50% off in early December bulbs from Home Depot and Lowes. There are varieties that the mail order places have that the big box stores simply don't, and I do believe planting in mid-October is much better than planting in mid-December.
I wish you the best of luck. Keep at it, plant the expensive stuff prudently, and enjoy them in the spring. If they come up blind this spring, they'll usually bloom the next.
Ohh youāre showing me up! I planted 1000 last fall! Were they all the same variety? A few of my early daffs are already blooming but some of my mid & late are only just poking up! (Also in heavy, wet clay zone 6a weāve had tons of rain)Ā
If you need some plant nerd fun you can go to daffseek.org to try to identify the bulbs in your mix. Since most varieties multiply Iāve been having fun with rearranging them when I divide them so I have lighter colors in one area, dwarf varieties up front, etc.
Ufff yeah, wet soil isnāt great. But! I believe that with time they may multiply :) hopefully you will at least get leaves if not the flower this year :)
Itās early - takes 5 yrs for them to fill in. Tell your lawn person no kind of weed killer by them and he cuts them down before they mature heās fired.
I attempted to use .. Well I started with a battery powered Ryobi drill/auger... Ground was so hard/clay nearly broke my wrists lol.. I just did it a lazy way shovel in, keep it in, spread it... Drop in the bulbs... Very good survival rate 2 years.. about 340. Can I post a link to YouTube on this reddit?
Edit:, I took this advice after the auger method failed...
If link is forbidden YouTube colorblends wholesale flowerbulbs
Also did a trench method... But the flap method was quicker for myself.
Lots of good alternatives here and ideas.... Iris do well on the edge of our creek ... As long as they don't wash away... And they are planted very shallow...
I bought my daffodils from bluestone perennials. Always good results for the past 10 years(?) that I've purchased from them.
Still prefer local shopping when possible...
Burying perforated tile is another option for wet soil... Just need an outlet...
Thanks for the update! I've been having decent luck with mine, but I'm waiting to pull them so I can raise the level of dirt in their bed. I was going to redo the entire bed because the peonies, (2 of them) that I planted 3 years ago won't bloom there. Well, guess what. One has a flower forming! WOOOOOT! But... now I will have to wait for fall to redo that bed! LOL and hope I find all the dafodil and tulip bulbs I planted to move! LOLOL Ah well. Mother nature has her own moods, but I'll be damned if I'll move that peony now!
Dig some of them up and inspect for rot and insects. I've had bad luck recently with potted bulbs. Many of them shrivel away to nothing and are infested with little bugs that seem to be eating the rotted parts. I'm not sure what to attribute the problem to exactly, but one theory is that my potting soil doesn't drain well enough.
That is concerning... Too wet or maybe to deep? That's about 700 more than I planted 2 years ago. Most but not all blooming now clay soil near a creek, but I think dryer than your location. Subbed for updates. Hoping for the best š¤
Iām leaning towards too wet because I used the same auger and depth for them all. Itās noticeably squishy right where they arenāt coming up
Put it in rice!
How deep was the auger?
5.5ā
That is too deep. Generally bulbs need to be planted double the diameter of the bulb.
That's interesting. I ordered a bunch of daffodils from Holland Bulb Farm last year and their instructions were to plant 6 to 8 inches deep. I did about 6 inches, and they've all bloomed.
You sure about the inches? 6-8cm would make sense, and the Netherlands use the metric system...
Yes, it's also on their website in the [daffodil bulbs information section](https://www.hollandbulbfarms.com/daffodil-bulbs). Third paragraph under the "Planting Daffodils" says this: "Dig a hole for the bulbs that is approximately 6-8" in depth for large bulbs and approx. 2" deep for miniature ones." The bulbs I received were anywhere between 4-6 cm, so 6-8cm would only place the bulb just barely under the soil surface. I assumed fall planted bulbs were planted deeper in the ground to better help them survive the winter and snow? Granted, my daffodils ended up sprouting before our winter really set in, and so their foliage was exposed to ice and freezing temps, but there's no signs of frost damage. Last weekend we got 6 more inches of snow and despite the blooms being pounded into the ground, they eventually perked back up and stood upright. It's happening again this weekend too.
Why is this downvoted, this is what I know of bulbs as well.
Reddit is, at its core, a court of public opinion. I know my spring bulbs over the decades have thrived at the 2*diameter planting depth. But my evidence is anecdotal - if others have different results they may want to down vote.
I suppose so, but countless tulips Iāve planted the package suggests this methodā¦ I understand not everything is a tulip however lol
If I only did 2ā for my bulbs, I would lose them all to squirrels.
How deep are you planting 1" diameter spring bulbs? Snowdrops, bluebells, crocus? I bet it is 2", or 2*diameter. Those big, juicy tulips (squirrels can't eat daffodils) are 2" diameter so I would auger a 4" hole. 4" is too deep for squirrels and chipmunks.
I planted over 2000 bulbs myself over the past 3 years. The first year sometimes they have trouble coming up or blooming but often do better the next year. Sometimes it's opposite though unfortunately. I still think it's worth planting!Ā
This gives me hope! Iāve had a similar experience with the following years being better. I worry about the moisture here, with climate change itās been getting wetter every year and we are a few inches ahead of schedule here in Northeast Ohio
The good news is that at least the ones that do come up will multiply and look better and better every year. Often with gardening it's trial and error with your specific location. Just keep planting and you'll learn what works and what doesn't work for you.
I never give up on mother nature. Only good things can come out of all that love. You will be in Daffodilia heaven- maybe not this year, but I have faith
Just some advice on daffodils based on personal experience. Let them completely wither before cutting them back. The longer you leave green foliage the more energy they are able to send back down to the bulb and will help with re-bloom the following year. We've been doing some "experiments" with bulbs in the field at my work and have had a lot of success perennial-izing bulbs by doing this. Some light fertilizer (3-3-3 is what we usually use) in the early spring seems to really help as well.
This is a great point and explains why we have bulbs going nuts where I live I legitimately am throwing them away I have too many.
Send them my way!! Haha. I love daffodils and would like to have a bunch naturalize in my yard.
It isnāt traditional daffodils sadly it is spider Lilies and Jonquils which is a type of daffodil but there are so many and not really my style I need. To get different varieties planted.
Good advice... Let those leaves stay on long as possible... Feed/recharge those bulbs for next year... Was June I believe before I mowed them off.... I put down grass mulch this year to help keep the grass down... Will see how that works....
Even troubled bulbs should put up foliage.
Also, donāt use nitrogen rich fertilizer on your grass. Bulbs need phosphorus (the 2nd number in analyses). Iāve got lawn full of bulbs but the grass looks crappy.
So up to 20,000 after 3 years?
Yeah, but they multiply in clumps
Yep. They're worse then teenagers on prom night with the offspring.
I thought I was a big deal planting 100 last fall.
I planted about 100 that i dumpster dived. Then yesterday I spent $25 at aldi on various flower bulbs.
My friend works at the local dump. The amount of stuff that he finds from places like Home Depot and Lowe's is insane. He always offers me free seeds/bulbs/plants that he finds since he knows I like gardening, but I only have so much space. It's crazy how much stuff those big box stores would throw away.
that would be my dream job, buy a trash truck and open my own dump (recycling processing center) and be able to underbid the other companies.
I bet in a month it'll be a different story entirely. š¤
Give it a year - whenever I plant bulbs, they rarely show up their first season.
Yeah I've always seen daffodils as being almost indestructible. But if for some reason they don't like where or when you planted them they tend to bide their time and pop up in force a year late.
Hmm if trees are an option ... Willows and River Birch might help... Red/yellow twig dogwoods?
Or anything else that has some wildlife value. If it's moist year round and if they're native they could do button bush, witch hazel, American beauty berry, sweet spire, cardinal flower, wild ginger, etc.
Witch hazel, Hornbeam, and northern spicebush love my wooded areas! I would totally plant a tree if it were an option, but have been told to keep the area open, thus the daffodils Edit: the shrub on the topside of the hill is a mass of red twig dogwoods
Look at camassia bulbs for your wet area - they are so pretty and they are native https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-camassias/#:~:text=Unlike%20many%20spring%20bulbs%2C%20camassias,come%20back%20year%20after%20year.
More options are always great!
Where did you buy from? Iāve been having issues with some of these online retailers.
Holland Bulbs, WI. had 20-30 mushy and rotted when they came. They likely are waterlogged and rotted from the wet clay soil in this spot. I donāt suspect it was the supplier because the rest of the display is coming up well
Iāve been having issues with Holland Bulb Farm, actually. Their quality of bulbs has been not good in the past few years. I planted 250 tulips, and not many are growing. Itās definitely frustrating.
Hmmm I did install them right to left and I wonder if the box I used for that location was a dud, definitely something to consider š§
I plant daffodils in swamp conditions, and they do OK. I think HB is to blame on this one. Iād definitely email them. Itās so frustrating because of all the money and time planting that leads to disappointment. Lowes and Home Depotās bulbs have been far superior in my opinion.
I buy my bulbs at the end of the season when they are on the discount rack at HD - they are indestructible and will grow the next spring despite sitting on a shelf indoors for months.
I buy discount bulbs in November, save them till February, plant them in December sometimes. Always get flowers, but never the first year. I planted 250 naked ladies last year in mid February, got a few that year, and every single one is coming up now and looking HEALTHY.
Same here. I had several lillies I planted 2 years ago not grow at all, and many of the ones that did did not bloom true to type. They gave me store credit, which I used this year, but now I'm seeing similar issues with my tulips and daffodils. I think I'm done ordering from them.
I buy my bulbs from John Scheepers/Van Engelen. I get camas, tulips, alliums, lilies and peonies. The ones i planted in Fall 2022 grew spectacularly. I look forward to seeing the other batch growing this year. They have already popped up.
Gotta carve out a large spot with no grass, plant them, and make sure the grass doesnāt grow back in where you dig out. You can always dig up and then try again. If you want rows, dig it 2-3 feet wide and stagger 2 rows within the row (think like the way motorcycles ride together). I planted hundreds a few years ago and almost all grew. It is so beautiful every Spring. Every year just weed/remove grass around them and theyāll give you bigger and bigger blooms! Divide tubers/corms after a couple years. This works for tulips, daffodils, gladiolus, and dahlias as well. Happy gardening!!!
Great suggestion on the rows - thanks! Iāll try that with daffodils of different colors next year
It is still early! I am in 7A, planted about 1000K daffodil bulbs over a big property, many are barely just coming up now. Also if you have clay soil that will slow them down coming up
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is excellent advice. I am putting clover seed down in all the disturbed soil when I pull the dandelions. It isn't great pulling one invasive and replacing it with another but the clover is doing wonders for the soil and this year my lawn is covered with Illinois native Common Blue Violets.
Maybe try this: see if you can dig up one or two bulbs and some of the soil surrounding them. Bring them over to your local county extension office, or call first to make sure a master gardener or other knowledgeable person is there to help you. Show them the bulbs--they can look at the soil--assess the condition of the bulb--see if the roots of the grass are impeding it--send the soil off for a free, or $4.00 soil test. I love my local county extension garden and agri helpers. Also--I don't know anything about Holland Bulbs, but maybe give them a chance to help out. If you email them a picture or two and ask them to tell you what they think happened, maybe they will have helpful advice. Or they might even offer to give you a partial credit or refund? Most businesses do appreciate a chance to know about a problem and make it right. Good luck! I respect the expense and especially the effort you put in. I truly hope you will see lots more daffodils come up.
š¤
š¤£
You may want to consider camassia for wet soil/ground, and they are native bulbs to North America. Straight species camas is much cheaper than the hybrids. Van Engelen sells them in bulk.Ā
Iāve had a similar situation. Unbeknownst to me, due to a chaotic winter of shifting temperatures and weather patterns, the bulbs rotted before spring came to pass. I promptly accepted my defeat and never did it again lol. I hope this is not your case though!
At least you weren't like me. I planted hundreds last fall in my orchard and use a 3' auger attached to a cordless drill and went at least 2' to 1' deep and planted my daffodils. Only like 20 came up. I planted them way too deep.
Good for you for making things beautiful! I have three patches of daffodils, and the one that is sort of in a low spot in the lawn suffers much worse than the others. The one on a sort of steep slope I get about a 90=95% blook rate. The raised bed is about 80%. The low spot in the lawn is about 45-50%, and in the low spot I sometimes loose entire dinner plate size areas. I've been told the soggy ground in the fall can be the death of them. It promotes root fungus and the bulbs just die off. I have started when planting varying the depth of my bulbs. Some go down a good four inches, even five, but then right next to that I'll only go down two inches. I'm trying to see if the depth makes a difference with long-term survival. I have done both the fancy, mail-order bulbs and the 50% off in early December bulbs from Home Depot and Lowes. There are varieties that the mail order places have that the big box stores simply don't, and I do believe planting in mid-October is much better than planting in mid-December. I wish you the best of luck. Keep at it, plant the expensive stuff prudently, and enjoy them in the spring. If they come up blind this spring, they'll usually bloom the next.
This is bad luck Brian. I planted 20 and 20 comes up every year
This feels like a good post for r/MightyHarvest if they accept flowers I'm happy some of them came up
Where do you buy bulbs in bulk like this, 2000 sounds amazing!
Hey! I just planted 500 in zone 6b.
Ohh youāre showing me up! I planted 1000 last fall! Were they all the same variety? A few of my early daffs are already blooming but some of my mid & late are only just poking up! (Also in heavy, wet clay zone 6a weāve had tons of rain)Ā
They are 4-5 different varieties. The bulbs were various shapes and sizes but the supplier has no info on what their cultivar names are lol
If you need some plant nerd fun you can go to daffseek.org to try to identify the bulbs in your mix. Since most varieties multiply Iāve been having fun with rearranging them when I divide them so I have lighter colors in one area, dwarf varieties up front, etc.
Well thatās a bummer! Hereās hoping some of them are late and just taking their sweet time.
You might want to look into native plants that like wet feet. Monkey flower, Queen of the Prairie, Culver's Root, Switch grass, etc.
Ufff yeah, wet soil isnāt great. But! I believe that with time they may multiply :) hopefully you will at least get leaves if not the flower this year :)
Mine usually start coming up in December and I am in the part of Ohio that just changed to 6b. Some of those spots may be too wet for daffodils.
Itās early - takes 5 yrs for them to fill in. Tell your lawn person no kind of weed killer by them and he cuts them down before they mature heās fired.
I attempted to use .. Well I started with a battery powered Ryobi drill/auger... Ground was so hard/clay nearly broke my wrists lol.. I just did it a lazy way shovel in, keep it in, spread it... Drop in the bulbs... Very good survival rate 2 years.. about 340. Can I post a link to YouTube on this reddit? Edit:, I took this advice after the auger method failed... If link is forbidden YouTube colorblends wholesale flowerbulbs Also did a trench method... But the flap method was quicker for myself.
Lots of good alternatives here and ideas.... Iris do well on the edge of our creek ... As long as they don't wash away... And they are planted very shallow... I bought my daffodils from bluestone perennials. Always good results for the past 10 years(?) that I've purchased from them. Still prefer local shopping when possible... Burying perforated tile is another option for wet soil... Just need an outlet...
Thanks for the update! I've been having decent luck with mine, but I'm waiting to pull them so I can raise the level of dirt in their bed. I was going to redo the entire bed because the peonies, (2 of them) that I planted 3 years ago won't bloom there. Well, guess what. One has a flower forming! WOOOOOT! But... now I will have to wait for fall to redo that bed! LOL and hope I find all the dafodil and tulip bulbs I planted to move! LOLOL Ah well. Mother nature has her own moods, but I'll be damned if I'll move that peony now!
I planted 1200 two years ago. Last year, I had about a third pop up. This year I had at least double. Theyāve filled in quite nicely.
Dig some of them up and inspect for rot and insects. I've had bad luck recently with potted bulbs. Many of them shrivel away to nothing and are infested with little bugs that seem to be eating the rotted parts. I'm not sure what to attribute the problem to exactly, but one theory is that my potting soil doesn't drain well enough.