"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 7 May 2018 22:55:35 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 07/05/18 17:36, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I was tying down my daffodils in the troughs in the front
garden over the weekend, partly because I usually do and partly
to show the tulips in the pots better.

A man passing by stopped and said "Oh, I've not seen anyone tie
down daffodils like that for years" (or words to that effect).
Made me think:

a) Is it worth doing, except for the second reason above?
b) Does it help the bulb?
c) Looking around the gardens here, why does no one else do it!

As long as the daffodil leaves are straight and green, they are
supplying food to the bulb for next year's plant - including the flower.
If you bend and knot them and cut off the food supply, you are risking
smaller bulbs and inferior flowers.

My late mother, when she was still able to garden, always knotted her
daffs after they'd flowered. She also said that you can cut off the
foliage six weeks after the flowers have gone, because by that time
the bulbs will have got all the nourishment they need for next year.
Whether either was any more than an old wives' tale, I don't know, but
her daffs always put on a good show every spring.

Many years ago the Daffodil Research Unit in Cornwall carried out tests
to see if therewas any effect in cutting off the tops of daffodils soon after
flowering. they concluded that bulbs treated in this was actually flourished
as the bulb had already made the food for the following year at flowering
time and that leaving the tops on to die down could lead to the
introduction of virus diseases into the bulb. I cut mine down soon after
flowering every year and they are flourishing and spreading.

Phil.



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