I'm not sure what forum to put this on, so I'll start here. This is for a neighbor. She bought some daffodils last year from Brecks. They weren't the ones they ordered, but the plain yellow and white ones. They bloomed fine. This year they came up, but have never bloomed. BUT they have grown about 6 feet tall!! Any ideas what is going on?? She swears it's daffodils.
kb, I'm a "minor league" gardener, but on this one I feel confident enough to say that does not look like daffs.
Looks like grass to me. Have her loosen the soil and pull up a clump. I will bet there won't be a bulb attached to them!
Good idea. She swore it was the daffs but I told her it looked like she had grass. I think she said they put some manure in that bed and all I could figure was something was in it.
Ok, here are some pics. She dug one up and said that they are all in a huge rooted mass together now. They look like daffodil's to me too.
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All I can say is.... WOW.
I just spoke with a friend, who said those are probably a rhizome of some kind, not a daffodil. The upper foliage resembles a daffodil, but the height is closer to that of a Glad, or Acidanthera. If they are not dying back at the moment, they they will probably flower soon-ish.
I'm the curious type who would let them stay until they bloomed, then either keep them there, or move them somewhere else where they can take over at their leisure.
Your friend may want to have a 'chat' with Brecks, if that is where she bought the bulbs. Maybe email the pictures to them. Perhaps they will know what is happening.
Lori
I have NEVER seen anything like that!! I sure do hope they bloom as I am sooo curious as to what they are!
I second Lori's suggestion. A pic to and a chat with Brecks is in order ASAP.
You sure know how to grow em in Texas don't ya!
konkrete, they are not daffodils, which will have a pretty defined bulb. Fertilize them with a high-phosphorous fertilizer and mayvbe you'll coax them into bloom, and we can see what they are!!
I was waiting for you to pull one out - if it had a bulb attached, you'd make the Guiness Book of Records!
I don't know what daffodil bulbs look like, but that's the ONLY plant that has ever been planted in this small bed. I told her the same thing, to give it a big dose of phosphorus to see what they bloomed! That might be kind of exciting! I have some stuff that I don't use that I will take her.
She has been talking to Breck's but she doesn't have a digital camera so she hasn't been able to send them a picture. She sent me the reps info so I'll be sending them pics.
If those end up to be just gigantic daffs, I'm buying THAT manure!!
The top center, right side, and bottom right bulbs in the picture are examples of daffodil bulbs. Sorry was the best picture I could find :-)
This message was edited May 12, 2005 11:08 PM
Ok, thanks. Forgive my ignorance, but I'm very new to bulbs...do they continue to look like that? They don't root out and lose that bulb look? or does it stay round and then root from the bottom? Could all of those roots not be just coming from what used to be a more round bulb?
Well, I still don't think it looks anything like a daffodil bulb - but now inquiring minds want to know! Let us know when it blooms, and get a photo!
koncrete,
No, the bulbs stay intact while the plant grows and blooms. Yours is not a daffodil of any conventional type. I'd like to know what it is though!
Just read through this thread. Looks like a grass to me to, but you never know. Definitely not daffs though. You mentioned she put manure in the bed.....my guess is that it was not thoroughly "cooked" manure and there were some viable seeds in that manure that just went to town. Do you all have a tall prairie grass in that area of TX that the cattle might have eaten? Could be a native TX prairie grass of some kind.
You might try posting your photos in the Identification Forum.
I've never seen any grass like that, but then I'm certainly no grass expert. What she put down was bags of topsoil that she said contained manure also. She just got them at Wal-Mart or Lowe's, nothing special. I think I will post about it on the ID forum.
Possibly cattail?
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/34884/
Boy! That looks pretty close!
It sure does!!
So what happened to the daff bulbs?? Have you tried digging around to find them?
GGKin, I think you've answered the question!! That looks exactly like her plants. She's going to be disappointed that she's not going to have giant daffodil blooms! LOL Thanks so much! btw, how did you know this??
And now the question is how did ALL of those get there lol. Way bizzare!!
Thats what I wanna know- and where did the daffs go?? When did they last bloom?
Yes, good questions! She just planted the daffs last year and they bloomed then. The other stuff had to have just come in the bags of dirt they got. I'm rethinking using that topsoil/manure now! LOL
Photo #3 helped with me to believe it was cattail. The shape and curve of the blade. If you cut a lower portion of the blade into a 2-3 inch section it should look fiberous. If you place it into water and it floats I bet for sure it's cattail. Now for the mystery of how they got there.
I wonder if it may have been brought in by the topsoil or the compost. Then I also wondered if maybe she could have had some cattails in a dried arrangement that was spread all over the area. Maybe during Halloween or something. Just a wild guess. I hope you find out how it got there, please let us know.. Love these type of mysteries.....LOL
Kin
But you have personally seen this plant before? I had no idea that cattails were this big! I think I've always thought they were a small grass with a fuzzy bloom. Maybe that is too tho. This has been quite interesting, hasn't it!
Yes it has been interesting. I saw the post on the ID forum and didn't give it much thought. I then noticed your link to this post and your fantastic photos which helped very much.
I remember as a young man playing in swamp areas or boggy areas where they were plentiful. We would weave the blades into little rafts and float them out trying to sink them with rocks. We also took the cattail blooms and hit eachother with them until they would break apart. They are not good if you happen to breathe them in......LOL That would bring you too your knees coughing and gasping for air.
They do get very tall and many of them are edible. But I don't advise you to eat them...
Edit to say: Oops I ment as a young Boy...LOL Not a young man. I did grow up and move onto better things to do....LOL
This message was edited May 14, 2005 9:12 PM
Ahhh, that's a great story!! :) I knew you had to have seen them and recognized them, because we were just going on with the idea that they were daffs. lol She is certainly going to be surprised to learn what they are. I hope she does let them bloom! She might as well now and it would be an eye-catching arrangement by her front door. lol I'll pass on the advice about eating them. ;)
They are definitely cattails. She says they are blooming today so I will go take a picture later to share.
Now she needs to know how to get rid of them. ???
