When to cut down daffodils

Have you all cut your daffs down yet? How can you tell when it's time to cut them? Mine are shading out my other perennials.

Thanks,
Brenda

Hi Brenda, I've read you should wait till the leaves yellow OR at least 8 weeks - like you I couldn't wait any longer as they made the garden look terrible, and many of mine were still mostly green - but it's been 8 to 12 weeks for most of them now, so I went ahead and started chopping recently. Your bloom season is later so you may want to wait a few more weeks.

Braid the greens together..That way you can leave until they die back naturally..They need to keep them as long as possible for next years flower.. The braiding will make them look much neater..My grandmother taught me this trick almost 40 years ago.. Works with any bulb that needs to keep it's foliage.

Larkie

i use a rubber band for mine or garden tape to hold them together.

they really do need to die on their own for next year.

Oh dear. I can't see me braiding a couple hundred daff bulb leaves. :) My back aches thinking about it. I guess I'll just wait a couple more weeks and chop them down and hope for the best next year.

Thanks.

B.

I leave mine up until the foliage yellows.Since one is not supposed to remove it while still green I just walk around and run my fingers thru pulling out the yellow one and leaving the green. It is not a good idea to clip off the green foliage since the plant is storing nutrients for next springs bloom that way.

Hi, Loon--

The daffodil foliage question is a sticky wicket that's for sure. There has been a lot of discussion about dealing with it and nobody has much satisfaction it seems...but I think this is interesting---

I read a university research study that said that they got about an 80% return the following year on the daffodils that they cut back 6 weeks after bloom, so this is what I do for my 'generic' type daffs (jetfires, king alfred types, ice follies, and so on).

For my more 'precious' daffs, I try to baby them along a few more weeks and try strategic camoflage with various perennials that doesn't work too well or go on vacation and ignore it.

Of course, if you are growing 'show' daffodils, you will have to treat them most reverently and keep the greens (almost forever). And the show daff aficianodos won't even permit braiding or tying their bulb foliage, which is so quaint but labor intensive, and which effectively reduces the chlorophyl production that enhances bulb growth and may be counter productive. But I like to tie them, too, depending on which bulbs they are and where they are (along the walkway, for instance).

If you give your daffs a dose of LIQUID bloom booster fertilizer (high in P and K) for instance (dare I say it) "Miracle Grow for Bloom" while they are in bloom they may have a better chance of growing nice big bulbs faster underneath the ugly foliage and enable you to cut them back earlier. I do this, too.

Having said all of the above, though, I admit I'm not the most experienced Daff grower, but I have researched it (to death) and I grow lots of different varieties and have been experimenting for the past three years on this problem. I'm hoping to create a break-through and make a fortune!

So, there are some options, but no doubt that foliage is vexing.

I agree with what Tabacso said. I have read that braiding leaves is not a good idea as well and most experts recommend against it...and if you have a lot of plants, that sure is a lot of work to do - especially if it turns out to make things worse. I have been cutting mine down 8-12 weeks after flowering (they usually all have some degree of yellow by then, even if only the top few inches) and mine seem to return well each year. Thanks tabasco for the info and confirming I am not crazy.

Braiding the leaves is and looks tacky....that is not nature. It also is not good.....they need the leaf surface in order to make the bulb grow.....bundling them is of no use to the bulb....youy ma as well cut them off till 4 inches above the ground. Why not just let them mature? Is everybody taking a dead Daylily leaf away or a dead Bearded Iris leaf?

I don't understand what is so ugly about daffodil foliage. Mine stays green for quite a while, and I think it looks just fine as a background. Why don't you just move them in the back of the bed (or the middle, and grow something in the front that will focus the eye on that plant instead? By the time mine start to turn brown, I can't even see them anymore what with all of the other things growing and changing in the garden.

The problem that I have is that mature clumps just flop on whatever is next to them. Sometimes the spread is an additonal 1.5 feet. In wet spring years this can really cause a problem for the plants next to the daffodils.... smothering, root rot. So I usually at bout 8 weeks I fold them over and tie. I love daffodils, in a place with deer they are try invaluable. But there is not way that I am willing to sacrifice my perennials which need to brighten the garden for the remaining 4 months.

ROX