Expert: Long Island Gardener - 5/3/2008

Question
If a bulb does not produce a flower will it produce a flower the next year.

Answer
Disappointment reigns every Spring across the Northern latitudes as gardeners who have waited for months in anticipation of the season's first blooms face the sad, sorry truth: Even in the life of a Daffodil, some rain must fall.

Tulips, you can expect, will just wane and wane, until they wither and vanish forever.  That's the way most Tulips are.  Can't do nothin' about it.

Daffodils however are natural perennials.  So when one does not bloom, we wonder what went wrong.  It was not fate.  It was something we DID.  Or DIDN'T.

And this is absolutely factual.  Something environmental must go wrong for Daffodils to fail.

Which means it can be fixed.

Problem here is we have to figure out what was the cause to reach that effect.  And this is easier siad than done, especially since you are on the internet and I am on Long Island.

Some Daffodils are very tricky.  Every year, some or all of my favorites fail -- Geranium and Winston Churchill.  This year, fewer failed.  Next year, who knows?

'Tahiti' is one of the less fickle double Daffodil hybrids on the market.  But I like the strong fragrance of the others, and their pure colors.

If your Daffodils did not bloom at all -- no flower spike -- you probably encountered a problem with the light.  Daffodils need full sun to build up their flowers.  No light, and you get no flowers.  A little light, and you get small flowers, fewer flowers, or one flower.

Many other factors contribute to blasting.  Too much moisture, or not enough.  Too much heat, too much cold.  To improve your chances, plant your Bulbs DEEPER next year -- lift them this Summer, store COOL and DARK (not in plastic bags; use paper bags instead), then plant late in the Season, a good 12 inches underground, in loamy Soil that has good drainage.  Do not fertilize these or you'll be asking for trouble.  A topdressing of compost may help, for various reasons.

Water after planting next year, and then stop.

Remember.  No fertilizer.  If nutrients were your problem, you'd have small blooms -- not NONE.

Any questions?