Query

The narcissis took over a rather large area of my garden. Well the whole garden if truth be told. Now that they are done blooming I would like to take them out. Will it hurt the bulbs to dig them out while the foliage is still green? Frankly, If I lost half of them I would still have twice as many as I need. They are choking and shading everything else. They have got to go.

The greenery is the bulbs way of regenerating some after blooming before dieing off. this is always what i have been told. are you planning to put them some where else or just being done with them. if you plan to put them elsewhere shouldnt hurt to. if want them for next year wait till they die off. hope this helps some.

Can I hack off most of the greenery? They have shaded the area to the point that no seeds are coming up yet. Thanks.

they need 6-8 weeks of leaf growth after flowering to store enough energy for next years flower

I guess they are out of luck then, poor things. I can give them another week, maybe two at the most. This is spring planting time for me. Any later and the plants cook in summer before they get to full flower.

Thanks, Mark.

You can thin them out now and replant the ones you want to keep, but try to keep the foliage and roots as intact as possible. I usually wait until the foliage turns yellow before I thin them out, but I have done it with green ones. I know what you mean about things done before it gets hot.

Problem is, I THOUGHT I had dug them all out and moved them to the new bulb garden. I do not want them there at all. These are evidently quite deep because I dug and sifted the entire bed to remove bulbs. I only started with 10, moved about 20 and still have a bed full. I will go out and tell them I really want them and them they will die for sure lol.

Oh, I'd gladly pay postage for you to send them to me. I can pot them up here until it's planting time and keep them in a sunny place. Please? I'm wanting to put in some bulbs at my church anyway and their budget isn't very big at all. Let me know, please. Goodness, if I lived closer, I'd come and help dig them.

This whole bed looks like this and it is time to replant.

How about this? I will trim back the foliage a little and let them stay another week or so and can send them on to you. These have just finished blooming so it will be next year before they will come up for you again. I can't say that they are prolific bloomers but they sure put out the foliage.

I wish I could take you to our 99 cent store. They have bags of bulbs and the seed packets are 6 for 99 cents. So far the bulbs I have gotten there have all been good.

Oh, how wonderful for you that you have a store like that so close to you.

I'd be delighted to take these wonderful flowers off your hands. They may do better getting thinned out, too, so perhaps those you keep will bloom better for you next year.

Yes, I realize that they won't bloom for me this year, but I'll baby them and maybe they'll put on a good show next year. Thanks so much.

Send your addy and I will let you know when they are in route

i'm ssurprised that you can grow them at all. i thought they needed a cold spell to reblossom?

Not narcissis. They do not care. They multiply like bunnies here. The glads stay in the ground too. I don't have really good luck with things like hyacinths though.

One thing you can do is to gather the leaves together, bend them down and secure with a rubberband. That way, the plant still has the greenery it needs and you have solved your shade problem. I do it all the time.

Frog, when I lved in San Diego I use to dig my hyacinth up in July....let them dry a bit and than plop them into the veggy crisper of our fridge till November....than back into the ground and blooms by Feb/March
When I use to need to devide my dafs and other narsissus I would dig whole clumps....move them to their new home/bed, and if further devission was needed I would than wait for foliage dieback.

RikerBear
aka
Marc

This message was edited Feb 23, 2004 11:58 AM

This message was edited Feb 23, 2004 11:58 AM