Daffs - once blind, blind for ever?

[peanuts]

Last year we were given over 100 daff bulbs from a friend of a friend.  As we had just created a new flowerbed, I was very grateful for them, and planted them in small groups the whole length of it.  They have all come up this year, but only four are in flower, the rest seem completely blind. Can anyone tell me if, now they have been planted individually, they will recover and produce flowers next year, or are they likely to remain blind for ever?  If so, I would probably be better to lift the whole lot and start afresh with new ones!

[peanuts]

[betula]

Not sure but worth leaving them in till next year.

Had these bulbs been previously planted and dug up I wonder.If so they may have been cut down too early.Cutting down the foliage too quickly can produce blind bulbs,they need to be left for several weeks.

[Poppy Mole]

When we grew them on the nursery I worked at after cutting had finished for the season they were thrown outside on some rough ground (they were grown in boxes) the next year they didn't flower but after that they were magnificent, so I would suggest wait at least until next year.

[peanuts]

I realise now that what I wrote wasn't completely clear - the bulbs were lifted from another garden, and I don't know what state they were in, except that when I received them last August, they were dry and had no dead leaves attached to them.  So it looks as if I need to be patient and give them another chance to do better, and perhaps give them some foliar feed?

[Ellen K]

^^ Toby recommended tomato food soaked right in so it can get to the roots.

[Poolcue]

I was told to lift the blind bulbs at the end of the season and plant them deeper in the soil

[Digeroo]

Feed them?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Feed them next summer, and give them time. I've planted daffs which had sat neglected in pots for years, and in the end they gave a good display. I put anything like that in the lane outside my plot, and then it doesn't matter how long they take.

[laurieuk]

The two main reasons for daffodils to be "blind is lacking food and being too shallow in the soil. When we first started in this garden 25 years ago there were large areas of daffodils in the lawns but no flowers. I was told they had been there for many years. To lift them was gong to be a major job so I tried breaking the normal rules. If you feed bulbs growing in grass you generally feed the grass,as those roots are nearer the surface, so I started feeding in late January when the grass is dormant in the hope the fertilizer "growmore" would wash down past the grass roots. We are leaving this garden next week as our employer has died and it is a tied house but those areas of bulbs are full of buds and we have never lifted them. I have 100 varieties of exhibition daffodils and I feed them with Vitax Q4 in February this improves the colour and helps with the roots for next years bulbs. I have permission to come back and lift my bulbs in June as they are worth a lot of money and some cannot be bought anywhere.

[Digeroo]

I would feed them now until they start dieing down, they need to set the flowers before the summer.

[peanuts]

Thank you for so many helpful replies.  I had no idea if daffs once blind would always be blind.  Now I know it is worth keeping them and feeding them and hoping for better in years to come. I planted them fairly deeply as i knew I might want to put annuals on top of them later on in the season. Fingers crossed for next year then!

[valmarg]

Feed them?

And the feed they need is sulphate of potash, to encourage flowering.

valmarg

[daitheplant]

How deep were they planted?

[peanuts]

I can't say exactly now, but I would have put them as deep as I could with a hand trowel, in well dug earth, no different from how I've always done it. I don't want to dig them up again, so I think I'll gl for feeding them with sulphate of potash, and possibly some wood ash from our wood burning stove as well (see other posts!)