question about moving bulbs

Hey all,
I want to move some of my naturalized daffodils that are in odd places in my yard. They didn't look natural.
Anyway, should I wait until cooler weather to dig them up and move them, or dig them up now and hold them until later? or is it OK to move them now. They are all dormant, of course.

The next problem will be remembering exactly where they are without digging up the whole yard....

Everytime I start to plant a new perennial I run into Daf bulbs. I collect them and plant somewhere else. It's going to be hard to find them this time of year. I'm not in your zone, but don't see any reason why you can't move them now. Maybe someone in you zone will have better advice.

As long as they are dormant there should be no problem moving them now. If you have lots of bulbs in the areas you want to move from, you may lose some when you dig them up but you will get plenty to move elsewhere. I dug lots of daffs and spider lilies from an old house site at our deer camp to plant here in our yard. I ruined some bulbs but had more than enough to get a couple of nice beds started here. BTW, I used surveyors flags to mark the new beds so I'd remember where they were come spring.

I'm 7a dig those puppies up and put them where you want. As far as the ones you can't remember, you can try to lightly dig them up or wait until next year and dig them up right after they bloom, or not do it as soon as you see them coming up. It's up to you.

I have a general idea where some of them are, and I may try a couple areas to see how much of a mess I make. haha
Are you saying, kitten0115, that it would be OK or NOT OK to move them when they are just barely out of the ground this spring? ("or not do it as soon as you see them coming up") This year they bloomed in February.

it's just fine to move them. Water them in really good and you should get blloms. Sometimes when you move plants/bubls you interfer with the blooming process but I have found if I move spring bubls when i finally see where they went then I have no problem getting blooms.

If you prefer to move them now (which is what I would do), try digging them up with a pitch fork--it will damage fewer bulbs than a shovel. If you'd rather wait till spring, you could move them when they first break the soil line but you probably won't get blooms that year, or you could let them bloom and wait till the tops have turned brown and move them at that point. It's important to let the tops die back because they store their energy for next year's blooms from the green tops.

as long as the bulbs have some green they can store plenty of charbohydrates for the next year. As, I usually cut spent bulbs down to just a couple of inches so they don't look raggy in the garden.

This is the time to plant spring flowering bulbs so I guess they would be fine to transplant now too, just make sure you bury them deep enough so the dont get to hot in the warmer days you will still be having and as said before, water the soil well too, it is a good time to split up any large clumps and check there are no soft rotten ones while you are at it, I would take advantage of moving them and add plenty organic matter to the soil to help them build up into good strong healthy bulbs. Remember this time to stick a marker into the soil where you replant them so you won't stand on them or disturb them when you work that spot in the future. good luck, you should have a lovely show next Feb. WeeNel.

Here in my zone I don't usually plant new bulbs until November or December. Will it be best to wait until then to move them? I wonder if moving them now and disturbing them will get them to start growing again too early? Or is that just silly.

No there are no silly questions on this site, but the bulbs wont start to grow till nature tells them it is time, if they start to grow from now in your area then yes they will grow and flower early, but nature and bulbs normally have a time clock saying to start growing and not before then, bulbs are slightly different from rooted plants in as much as the bulb is like a store cupboard and all the goodness is stored in the bulb for the right season and nature tells them when to put on growth, root plants go by temp, moisture and light, well most of them do, that is why over your way, you can grow lots of root plants to flower / grow earlier and for longer than I can here in my climate, because they use the warmer climate to tell them it is OK to start to grow, my temp takes longer into the season for this to happen if you follow what I mean. good luck. WeeNel.

I have moved bulbs this time of year (didn't have any other choice) and they did try to grow but all they did was put up a little green. It didn't hurt their blooming the next spring.

It won't help you right now, but I read an interesting tip that said to mark your daffodils (or other bulbs) with colored golf tees pressed almost flush with the ground. You can mow over the golf tees when the foliage has yellowed and you'll still be able to find your bulbs when you want to move them. Sounds good to me.

Good Tip! You could even color mark the plants, so that you have help remembering what color is where.