Daffs in Ohio/NKY Zone 6a frozen?

Hi everybody--just have to ask in this weird weather--how are your (daffodil) flowers growing? I planted lots of different kinds of daffs (from earlies to late bloomers) to have a long season of bloom--a few are 4 or 5 inches out of the ground...the rest seem to have disappeared or froze out--or have they just not yet broken ground??

If they are supposed to bloom in April (cheerfulness) and into late May (actea) is it too early to expect to see green shoots now? I planted many of the bulbs late (around Christmas) and our last frost date is April 29, if that means anything.

Do any of you Ohio/NKY zone 6 gardeners have any thoughts?

Thank you very much (in advance). t.

t,
I am always amazed at how many things appear to be gone in my zone and then peek their lovely heads out after the first few days of April. I never had any bulbs die -- I've had iris borers, but no problems with bulbs except for critters eating them.

They don't munch daffodils, though - so I think you probably will see those later ones ... um.. later. That's the miracle, isnt' it?

Tobasco, mine seem a litle slow peeking out this year,too. Seems like they were further along in past years,But like Janiejoy ,I've never lost any,so don't worry..a couple of warm days and you'll be amazed

Thanks for your encouragement! Now it is really cold out here--20 degrees--and the daffs have little buds--boo hoo--I'm afraid I've lost them but will keep up hope. Still others I have NO sign of...

Yoo, hoo! golgi, and janie, and other midwest bulb gardeners!

How are your daffodils growing now?? Most of mine are still not showing any green. They are 'Actea', the latest bloomers, and 'Yellow Cheerfulness', also late bloomers...I also have Carlton and Tahiti. Do you think they will start to peak out of the ground soon? These are bulbs I planted this past fall.

The bulbs I planted the year before are showing some green, and even have buds but they are a common early variety....Also, many of my miniature early daffs are about 3 inches out of the ground...

Although it has been cold, now it seems late to me to have no green....and I'm really afraid I've lost them. What do you think? Does anyone have the same thing going on? :-(

Does anyone have any pics of how their bulbs are doing ?

Forgive me if I still seem impatient. Thanks. t.

no green much here either. It's been too cold! Dang it!

The feeling I'm getting from areas around the country are that they're coming up late this year. Weird weather patterns and stuff. I think they came early in the west and get slower as you head east. My tulips popped through about a week and a half before my crocus. Another thing to consider too I learned, what side are they on. I saw that daffs were ALL in bloom and most Tulips had started to open here in Loveland three weeks ago (very early). Mine had nothing, not even any green. But then realized they were all on the north side of my house! Duh! Hang in there! Here is a thread I had started:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/490164/

J

Thanks, Janie and Stevie-fan, for your reassurance and link. S., your courtyard project looks very neat...and it's reassuring for me that you are getting some green coming through...and Janie, it's reassuring me that you are NOT getting much green coming through!

I also did a little google research on bulb bloom schedules, but did not find the info I was looking for: what is the factor that 'triggers' above ground narcissus growth? Is it temperature, daylight length, some genetic trigger depending on type of bulb cultivar, date they were planted? All/some of the above?

And, how long does it take for a daffodil to break ground to bloom? Mmmmm....just wondering if anyone had a bulb botany site that discusses some of these issues?...

I will try to be patient, but this nasty March weather seems to be going on far too long with no sign of spring...I thought I would have my daffodils by now to 'take the edge off'...

And lastly, a little daffodil poem:

"Though many a flower in the wood is waking,
The daffodil is our doorside queen;
She pushes upward the sword already,
To spot with sunshine the early green."

- William Cullen Bryant,
Invitation to the Country, 1864

Have you checked out your garden today? I have bulbs topping out some of them about 4" high and snowdrops beginning to bloom, tiny yellow crocuses and purple crocuses blooming and tulips and daffs coming up all over the place now. It's exciting!

It looks like a lot of things have suddenly decided to emerge just in time for resurrection Sunday!

Yayy!

Our snowdrops were showing off in late Feb., but otherwise it had seemed pretty bleek - maybe because I was working until after darkness fell each night. So, I'm finally home during the day and I see tulips, daffies, a few daylilies, narcissus . . . Now I'm potting up new plants that I ordered and wondering when I will see the first signs of returning hostas.

Interestingly, about a month ago I checked on the cannas that I did not manage to get dug last fall and many are still in good shape so I covered them with leaves and mulch to hold them a while longer. There are a ton of them. I need to get them potted for the April Master Gardening sale.

I to have noticed that the Daffs I planted last fall have been very slow to emerge, while the ones that were already in the garden are blooming(finally!). This has been a cold March here in Eastern KY and it seems like my spring bulbs are all about 3-4 weeks behind compared to the last 2 years. Of the 5 varieties of Daffs I planted in the fall, none are over 1-2" tall now and a couple are supposed to be early bloomers. I think we can blame it on weird wheather.

Slowly but surely. Some of the Daffodils are ready to bloom, in a week or so.

Hi, bulb enthusiasts--thanks for giving me words of confidence and your observations about your garden bulbs. Gives me some measure of hope about mine, although at this point I am convinced I have lost half the crop from heavy rains and maybe animal problems...

I did check yesterday (in the rain), Janie, and found some of my miniatures in bloom, although only 4-5 inches tall so I have posted a little pic for you to analyze(!). No sign of my Actea or Yellow Cheerfulness and only half of the original crop planted by the previous owner are showing any green.

No cannas, and no hostas, yet, Maria, and only two of my crocus bothered to come up.

And Gemini, your report is encouraging to me, especially if yours are supposed to be early bloomers (what did you plant?)--and you're farther south, but are you up in the elevations? And, BTW, welcome to DG and thanks for posting. Hope you love it here as much as I do!

And, drop, Columbus does seem to be a week or so slower than Cincy---I go up often to visit my Sis who lives in the Upper Arlington area...there are so many pretty yards and gardens along the river(?) road out your way from her house.

Thanks again for your opinions. Please post a pic or two when you have some yellow bursting forth! :-) t.

t, best wishes on your bulbs that are still a little weather shy to come out. they will, i betcha =).

my daffs bloomed and good height, too, considering i planted them late jan - early feb. i stil have some about to open and will definitely post pics. i got really excited when they bloomed i ordered some daff bulbs (fall shipping) from bloomingbulb.com.

it's always an exciting thing to watch them come up... no matter if it's fast or slow.

If it's daffs, most animals leave those alone since they are poison... but they like tulips, etc.

Welp, checked the thread here, Tabasco :( I'm chalking mine up as lost, too. So sorry you apparently lost so many, though. That's really too bad. So, can I understand that winters in Ohio are not usually this brutally WET. Poor plants. It's a wonder anything makes it through! I'm sure mine are all rotted out. The place I planted them in looked good at the time. Little did I know it would basically be a little puddle all winter long! Oh, well :) Next time I'll pick a different spot. Guess a nice waterplant would look good there instead! :) LOL.... sympathizing w/ you!!! (((((((poor lost daffies)))))))

Hugs :)

To tell the truth, I don't know anything about Ohio winters since this is my first full winter also...that's why I posted this thread....I did plant only daffs and allium because I knew we had lots of moles, voles, squirrels and the like and I thought those bulbs would be 'safe'. Dunno now, about that, though...

It does seem frightfully wet, but then I am obviously obsessed with the welfare of my daffodil crop and may be over sensitive! Just this morning I suggested to my DG that we should have created a water garden instead of daffodils since we have a veritable stream going thru the yard!

But, today it's supposed to be warm and sunny so I am hoping I see some pop up. If you all drive by, when you see a woman on her knees (every hour) with a magnifying glass, that will be me! My neighbors are all laughing at me (according to the neighborhood kids), and just waiting for my bulb garden to fail for a good yuk...isn't that awful! ;-)

Moonglow--you did have good luck with your late planted bulbs. They must have been pre-cooled, right?

Have a good day. t.

t, i had to check "pre-cooled" term, tee-hee. no, they weren't when breck's delivered them last fall. but since i forgot about them inside my garage, maybe the pre-cooling happened there.

still cheering you on from soggy corte madera.

I had some over-eager daffs showing a couple inches of green in January, during a really unseasonable warm spell. I kept saying, go back, go back! But the later cold & snowy weather did not seem to faze them, and now they are putting up buds.

In addition to variation from season to season, I've noticed that newly planted bulbs seem to take at least an additional 2 weeks to show themselves in my yard. I had some new ones our front ('Geranium' daffs, I think) that I'd nearly given up on, thinking, well, maybe voles *do* eat daffs after all..... and just a couple days ago, I saw shoots from them! Yay!

Good luck with your new daffs, Hugs & Tabasco! I know just what you mean about searching for any little sign of emergence.... I was doing that a couple of years ago when I first planted crocuses in the front lawn, and my neighbors were quite amused. I've since realized that the north-facing front lawn will always be several weeks behind schedule for blooms.... my neighbor has daffodils blooming when I'm first seeing my crocuses, and by the time my daffs in the front are blooming her tulips are nearly done!

Well, everybody, I have relaxed a little bit now that I found 'Dot and Dan's Daffodil Garden' website because it gives a wonderful detailed chart of narcissus bloom dates in their garden for the past 6 years.

They are in Zone 5 so a little later than here (Zone 6), but it still excellent information to have. If you are interested here is the thread link I posted

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/495751/

Also, I had a few daffodils bloom in the past couple days--Carltons, I believe, and some miniatures, so at least I have something to show for all of our digging and planting! Thanks again for all your reassurances. :-) t.

Yahooooo!!

Tabasco, those are just so bright & cheery!!

I guess my daffs are just slow....

It's April 1st, today, so I thought it a good time to record what is blooming in our south-facing daffodil garden (Zone 6a):

'Ice Follies'
'Jet Fire'
'Tete a Tete'
'Jack Snipe'

and a classic yellow trumpet that may be a 'King Alfred' (originally I thought it was a 'Carlton' but now that I have looked at Dot and Don's bloom time comparisons, I think it's probably a 'King Alfred' surviving from last year...'Carltons' will come a little later...)

For gardeners looking for other early bloomers, Mary Lou Gripshover, a former president of the American Daffodil Society, makes notes about some other late March bloomers in this Suite 101 article http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/daffodils/115047 . Mary Lou resides in Zone 6a, Cincinnati.

I am still looking for any green signs of my later blooming varieties...mmm....

Tabasco, I agree with criterologist, if it is the first spring for the bulbs, they may be a little later coming up. I plant at least a 100 bulbs every year and the first year ones are always a little later.

I'm not sure what variety mine are, I got most of them from Lowe's but I did add a few apricot ones last year, can't wait to see them!

Also, I don't know of any critters that will eat daffodils as they are posionous, the squirrels may dig up a few and relocate them but they won't eat them.

Heres a picture from last year ...

Hi, Jean--

I suppose I have to be patient and the daffs that survive all this rain will show up little by little and later than usual...I will keep my fingers crossed.

It's odd, but the ones that seem to be coming back are the sale cheapies from HD and Lowes, and the expensive mail order bulbs seem to be reluctant to show their green...

I continue to read Mary Lou Gripshover's Daffodil articles (Suite 101) for guidance and I think I will go to the Southwest Ohio Daffodil Show next week and see what I can find out...

Thanks and happy gardening. t.

yikes we have snow and freezing rain on our daffs!

Well, I am learning more and more about daffodils as I google around and check out DG postss...even found some great information on growing Daff's in Ohio with specific Hybrids recommended and no doubt I will find out more this weekend at the Daffodil Show at the Zoo...

In the meantime, I went out today and found these in bloom! It was raining when I took the pics, so, they leave something to be desired, I guess, but, they give you the idea of what is coming up for us now...

I think these blooms are the popular white trumpet, 'Mount Hood', introduced by van duerson in 1938. Some say it is good for perennializing and it has come up for at least two years in our garden, although we planted more last year.

And behind the 'Mount Hood', we planted some 'Pimpernels'...which are pretty glamourous, really, even though they seem to have droopy heads... but maybe that was because of the rain...

Well, planting these daffodils is pretty fun--even if they did make me a little neurotic a few weeks ago by being so slow to emerge... they really are cute... and we have a few other kinds beginning to show some green so I can hardly wait! (I guess you can tell I am pretty new at narcissus!) We are also waiting for the alliums, hyacinthoides, muscari various and a few others, so....

And I know there must be some showing up in your gardens too, and so I hope you will post some pics! ;-)

Here is what I have blooming!

More results...they are coming on strong now...

Here is the daffodil bed in mid-season--we have 'carlton', 'ice follies', 'jack snipe', 'tete a tete' blooming among others...the muscari must have succumbed to the moles, but, a few of the creeping phlox are beginning to bloom with the daffs...

I am trying to keep a record in my garden book of bloom times and placements so that I don't fret so much next year and I know where to add other varieties...

wowie! congratulations, t.

i knew they'd come out ;-)

Thanks, Moonglow-- I still have a few blooming--these Jack Snipe under my weeping japanese maple--and some odd doubles here and there so I'm feeling like I've had a pretty good season of daffs (after all that drama)...maybe a week or so of blooming left..

My azaleas are starting to bloom and (luckily) the narcissus 'yellow cheerfulness' are coming on at the same time, so I'm hoping for an interesting pairing next week...

Gardening in Zone 6 is so different from our Zone 10 So. Cal. garden (before we moved to Ohio last year) ...there everything just bloomed and we more or less knew we would get some nice combinations...here everything is much more 'risky', I think (and 'traumatic' for me to learn!).

Janiie, Masterofnone, Critter and Gemini--helloooo! Let's see some of your daff bloom too! Puhleez.... Happy gardening. t.

t, when i saw your latest post with pic, i just had to daydream of daffs again! don't worry about "all that drama" as you called it...we all love how the drama unfolded.

i ordered some (roll eyes) daffs for fall shipping at bloomingbulbs.com and can't wait to have a planned daff garden. aiming for a real bed for them.

Hi, again, everyone!

We're just winding up our daffodil bloom season with n. 'actea' and 'baby moon' blooming as the hostas are leafing out around them...

But wanted to post a collage pic (just learned how to make it!) of a few of the narcissus we had bloom after all!

And who would believe it's time to start looking for the new catalogs in the mail--and it sounds like Moonglow is way ahead of me, for sure, with her order already in!

Happy gardening....t.