How to Find the Perfect Daffodil Bulbs

Views: 12348 | Last Update: 2008-07-30
Discover the best places to find the perfect daffodil bulbs for planting in this free educational video series. View Video Transcript

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Video Transcript

Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen on behalf of Expert Village. Daffodils have been around for centuries. Shakespeare quoted them in his poems, Lords and Barons have grown them in their castles and they have been traded all the way around the world since the beginning of time it seems, at least the beginning of the trade. So daffodils are native to the Middle East. They are found all the way down from Iraq through Turkey and all the mountains of Southern Europe and they are usually called Narcissus, so a lot of people get confused because is it a daffodil or is it a Narcissus. Well they are usually intermixed. It's all Narcissus family but most Americans call them daffodils. So the most common variety that everyone knows is the Dutch master, or King Alfred. It's just a large yellow daffodil. You find them all over on the side of the road, wherever there was a homestead from the eighteen hundreds the bulbs are still there. And that is what I love about daffodils, nothing gets them. The deer don’t mess with them, gophers don’t mess with them, mice, shrews, rabbits, no one really touches them. So once you plant them you have got them forever. The bulbs are easy to recognize. They look like a little Hershey's Kiss candy and I like that a lot of the varieties have babies with them so they multiply real quickly. They can be tall, they can be short, they come in all different colors but Narcissus, or daffodils usually grow only about six inches to a foot tall and lots of greenery and they bloom usually February and March, one of the early bloomers. And when I am planting it, I plant it about three inches deep with the tip side up. When in doubt go sideways and a lot of time even when they are upside down they will work their way up so I wouldn’t be so worried about it. Just plant them and forget them. Watch our next segment on daffodils and the different varieties.