In article , "clipster"
wrote:

Question whether it is better to let daffs rot after cutting off the spent
flowers or just simply cutting back the entire plant? I have been dead
heading daffs for years and am not impressed with any spectacular regrowth
in the following year. Would simply cutting them back harm them?

email:

When the leaves first start to brown, cut them back rather than let them
rot to the ground. They've finished replenishing the bulb by the time
they're browning, & to leave them thereafter is at least unsightly, at
best doing neither good nor harm if allowed to rot, but at worst inviting
unwanted fungus or route for insect attack.

Bulbs that don't grow back the following year may not have had enough
light when the blooms were finished. I've had this problem only with those
I planted under deciduous shrubs, & will not plant them in those locations
in the future. They bloom before the shrubs leaf out so it seemed a good
idea at the time; but by the time the bulb has only leaves remaining &
should be recharging, they're overshadowed by leafy shrubs.

Also with bulbs that have been "forced" (& if instead of planting autumn
bulbs you do spring plantings from potted narcissus already in bud, those
were almost certainly forced for the sake of early spring marketing) these
often never do bounce back for future years.

Some cultivars simply do not perennialize well no matter what one does.
Varieties which expressly promise to perennialize or naturalize with ease
will return with the greatest vigor year after year.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/