How to Care for Daffodils

Plant your daffodils in areas of full sun or partial shade. If you choose partial shade, make sure the daffodils will get at least five hours of sun each day. Well-drained soil is ideal, but daffodils are hardy enough to withstand a range of soils.

Choose daffodil bulbs that have the best chance of producing healthy flowers. The larger the bulbs, the larger the flowers they’ll produce. Avoid bulbs that are dried out.

Prepare for a fall planting. Mid-September through October is ideal, but if a cold snap is on the way, the bulbs should be in the ground before it freezes.

Prepare the soil and plant your bulbs. Daffodils require only basic garden fertilizer; follow the instructions on the packaging. Make holes with a small trowel, or your fingers, that are 8 inches deep and spaced 6 to 12 inches apart. Place a bulb in each hole, and cover it with a mix of soil and fertilizer. The only care they’ll need until spring is an occasional watering – during the fall, not the winter – if there’s a sustained dry spell.

Keep an eye out for sprouting daffodil leaves in the early spring. Sprinkle the fertilizer you used in the fall around the bases of the shoots, avoiding the shoots themselves. Follow the fertilizer’s application directions.

Enjoy your beautiful yellow or white daffodils when they’re in full bloom. Leave them in the garden to admire, or cut a few and put them in a vase. At this stage, no tending, except occasional watering in dry conditions, is necessary.

Leave the daffodils alone for at least six weeks after the blooms have died. During this time, the leaves are manufacturing food that helps in next spring’s flower production. Once the leaves begin turning yellow, use scissors or clippers to cut them at the base for a neater look. Next spring, your daffodils will bloom again.