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Janet · 09-05-2014, 12:16 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
says...

About ten years ago when relaying a section of lawn I planted a whole
sack of yellow daffodils in the hope that they would naturalise. The
first couple of years they provided a glorious display but over the
years less and less have flowered.

Assuming they still produce healthy leaves, non flowering could be
caused by overcrowding / starvation.. especially if you planted them too
shallow.Daffodils vary considerably in how how much hardship they will
tolerate.. some types are almosr indesctructible and others relatively
shortlived.

You could dig up the non-flowerers (now is fine, leave the leaves on)
gently tease the bulbs apart and replant them more spread out in a
different place. There should be 5" of soil above the top of the bulb
(don't worry about the leaves being deeper than before.). Scatter some
growmore on the soil surface. It may take them a couple of years to
build up enough strenth to start flowering again.

Then this year a lot more flowered but they were white with small orange
centres. Is this normal? Is there anything that I can do (or shoud have
done) to maintain a full display of the big yellows daffs that I planted?

Andrew

Daffodils don't "revert". The "new" flowers you describe sound like
one of the poeticus narcissi... one of the oldest and most persistent-
surviving varieties. Maybe those bulbs were smaller when planted and
have taken a while to reach flowering size. But they have never been,
ones that produced big yellow flowers.

Janet.