Transplanting Daffodils In the Green

March 13, 2018

Transplanting Daffodils In the Green

I've been reading a lot about transplanting plants, particularly bulbs. The odd thing is that most of the advice given directly goes against my own experience with bulbs, corms and tubers. I have found them to be the toughest of tough when it comes to transplanting, thanks to that handy bundle of energy in the bulb. Encouraged by Charles Dowding to throw away Garden Myths and Misconceptions, I have chosen to do my own experimenting with moving daffodils in the green and have been greatly rewarded for it. Other DO disagree though...

Here is what one gardener says verbatim:

Theoretically, daffodils can be moved "in the green", as long as you take them out of the ground with a large soil mound around the roots, to avoid disturbing the roots. But, in practice, it's very tricky, and can result in killing the blooms for next year, or even the bulb itself, if you mistakenly damage the bulb. Plus, if you're moving them, you very well may want to divide them too, and that cannot be done in the green. Better to wait. You can move them after the foliage is yellow, but before it disappears, thus making it easier to find the bulbs, or, you can mark the spot of the bulbs now, and dig and transplant them in the early fall. I like early fall better because that's when you normally plant bulbs, which says to me that you are disturbing their growth cycle the least. And, there's so much to do in the spring, why not wait till fall? Good luck to you both.

P.S. Be sure to mark the spots with something reasonably permanent: plastic knives are good. So are plastic golf tees. You can also get a cheap vinyl window blind and cut the slats into markers with scissors. If you have many kinds of daffodils, you can indicate the variety, color, or whatever info will help you make a nice arrangement of them later, on your markers. You will NOT remember, and once the blooms are gone, virtually all daffodil foliage looks alike. It takes a little time, but hey! Any excuse to get outside for some exercise and fresh air! :)

[The rest of the discussion is HERE on this Houzz thread]

While I certainly appreciate the cheerful ending to the post, I have to disagree with almost everything In the post. When it comes to daffodils, my experience has been markedly different. After now transplanting daffodils in the hundreds (gosh thousands now really...), I no longer give them any special treatment. We love our daffodils, but we do not baby them!

Theoretically, daffodils can be moved "in the green", as long as you take them out of

the ground with a large soil mound around the roots, to avoid disturbing the roots.

I dig them out by the bucketful and knock the clumps of soil off indelicately hitting the 10 pound clumps against nearby trees.

Leaving the soil intact makes the buckets of daffodils to transplant far too heavy to tote back down the hill.

Then, I pull the clumps apart into individual bulbs, gently enough not to rip all the roots off, but truly it is not very gentle at all.

But, in practice, it's very tricky, and can result in killing the blooms for next year, or even the bulb itself, if you mistakenly damage the bulb.

Plus, if you're moving them, you very well may want to divide them too, and that cannot be done in the green.

I disagree SO HARD with all of this. I may lose a bulb here or there, but I haven't noticed.

What I HAVE noticed are daffodils popping up in the spring everywhere I have chucked them into the ground.

...and by chuck, I mean:

I take a shovel, pull up a clump of clay-like sod and fold it over. This ends up being an 8-12 inch wide rectangle.

I lay 3-5 divided daffodils....single bulbs...on the far edges of the hole.

Then, the sod is flipped back over and I give it a literal whack with the shovel to tamp it down.

The leaves sometimes bounce back, or simply lay on the ground for the first spring.

The next year...

Super healthy and thriving clumps of daffodils that have multiplied already.

Once in awhile, I will leave the daffodils slightly clumped instead of seperating out individual bulbs, but it is for the sake of the planting,

not for the health of the individual daffodils. Take this area of falling rocks for instance:

The wall is crumbling a bit and I am trying to shore it up, while creating a beautiful garden. For years, this area was overgrown with thistle and pokeweed. I have been slowly planting it out and using daffodil clumps to fill in between rocks and smother any weed seeds that would want to germinate. I take a medium sized clump (10-15 bulbs) and put it into an opening in the rocks. Cover with mulch and let the snow and rain water them in. You can see the daffodils moved several weeks ago (above) are happy as can be, perking their leaves straight up already. I would not be surprised if these transplanting clumps actually bloom this first year.

To push my luck even further this year, I have started clearing out the driveway grid and transplanting bulbs "in the green" into these inhospitable "cracks". They might not survive, but if it works, the driveway is going to be magnificent: