23-03-2004, 12:02 AM
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Daffodil Seeds
In article ,
(Fleemo) wrote:
Is it difficult to grow daffodils from seed? I recieved my first few
daffodil bulbs as a gift this year, and loved them. I'm wondering if
growing them from seed would be the most frugal way of filling my
garden with them next year, or if bulbs are really the way to go?
-Fleemo
You can get nice narcissi from seed if you're growing little species
daffodils, although they take four or five years to mature enough to bloom
(they CAN take up to seven years). Some fancy hybrid daffodils are
sterile; for others, what grows from seeds won't look anything like the
parent.
It's much better to clip the flowers off before they go to seed because
the bulbs produce more offsets if you don't let them waste energy making
seeds. Dig the bulbs up every second or third year & separate the new
bulbs; those will flower the following spring & be just like the parents.
Commonly a daffodil's seed pod is empty anyway. If does have seeds,
there'll frequently be only one or two seeds -- but the same bulb may have
half a dozen offsets. So seeds can sometimes be as expensive as bulbs IF
you can get any. Growing them from seeds is something mainly hybridizers
are eager to do, hoping that maybe one out of a hundred will develop into
something worth naming & preserving, since hybridized seeds produce
unpredictable plants, mostly inferior, but now & then something totally
unexpected for future cultivation.
If you need to save money on 'em, every autumn there are always some
budget-daffodils available by the gunnysack-full, surprisingly cheap,
though you don't end up with a lot of variety that way. Some of the bulb
specialists even sell a few unusual varieties in affordable bulk. OR you
can buy them late in the season when they go on sale -- if you're in a
relatively temperate zone you can plant them later than recommended &
they'll be fine. But even if you hand-select favorite types at their
maximum prices, budgeting for a few more varieties each year doesn't
require LOTS of patience since what has already been planted will also be
reproducing further offsets. A lot of these bulbs will out-last whowever
plants them, so when averaged out the per-year cost is pretty low.
-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/
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