Do I need to dig up daffodils every year, timing, care and storage

Often in garden plots you can see such beautiful flowers as daffodils. Their beauty is glorified in ancient legends about a beautiful young man who died of hunger while admiring his reflection. Graceful flowers require proper care. But not everyone knows whether it is necessary to dig up daffodils after flowering for the period of winter cold, as well as other important rules for digging and storing bulbs in winter.

Do I need to dig up daffodils?

To determine how often you need to dig the bulbs out of the ground, you need to pay attention to the following facts:

1. Every year, several children grow on each flower bulb. This allows daffodil lovers to significantly increase the number of tubers on their plot of land in a short time.
2. If you do not replant for 5 years, the bulbs grow close to each other, and this negatively affects the flowering of daffodils. Therefore, it is recommended to periodically divide the roots and replant the plant.
3. Flowers easily tolerate the cold season, so there is no need to dig up the bulbs for winter storage. Most flower growers remove rhizomes from the ground every year for preventive inspection and propagation.
4. When caring for daffodils, you need to pay attention to the size of the bud. If the flower has become small and the plant seems lethargic and weak, this signals possible diseases of the bulbs. In this case, after the flowering period, the tubers need to be dug up, inspected, the root system must be disinfected and the infected areas removed.

Why is wintering harmful for daffodils?

Almost all types of this beautiful flower tolerate cold well when outdoors and do not need to be stored outside the flowerbed. Covering with a small layer of mulch and dry leaves is recommended only in case of replanting or changing the place where the plant is flowering.

Taceta varieties need mulching every year.Terry and imported daffodils require the same care. Mulching helps preserve tubers even during periods of lack of rainfall. Therefore, experienced flower growers recommend using this method of protection during the winter months, even for hybrid flower varieties that are highly frost-resistant.

When is it time to dig

When the time has come to transplant daffodils, in order to avoid a lack of flowering in the new season, it is necessary to accurately determine the time to dig up the tubers.

Unlike other flowering plants, daffodils do not have a specific time for a dormant stage, that is, a period when all processes within the flower slow down significantly. Therefore, the owners of this plant do not have to wait for a specific day to begin the transplant procedure.

However, it is not recommended to do this immediately after the buds bloom. The best time is when the daffodil leaves turn completely yellow. This usually occurs in the second half of June and continues until the beginning of July.

What else you need to know about digging up daffodils after flowering

When the buds of beautiful flowers ceased to please the eye, the leaves acquired a dark yellow tint, and it was time to remove the tubers from the soil - the next stage of plant care begins. It is necessary to cut off the wilted leaves, then move the dug up bulbs to a cool and well-ventilated place to dry. After this, shake off the dried remains of soil from the roots.

The need to carry out the procedure every year

It is recommended to dig up and store daffodil bulbs after flowering only in cases where the gardener plans to transplant or propagate the plant. And also when there is a suspicion of diseases of the root system.

Precautions when digging

Basic recommendations for safely removing rhizomes from the ground:

1. It is necessary to dig up plant bulbs together with a large lump of earth so as not to harm them.
2. It is not advisable to use a large garden shovel, as there is a high probability of damaging the roots. It is better to use a tool designed for indoor plants.
3. Under no circumstances should you cut off the roots.
4. After the tubers have dried a little, you need to beat off the excess soil and start dividing the bulbs. This part of the plant is quite sensitive, so this procedure must be approached with extreme caution.

Attention! In order to remove excess soil, do not resort to the use of water. If out of all the tubers dug up for replanting, at least one onion is diseased, with a high probability, all the others will be infected.

How to properly store daffodil bulbs

To preserve the dug up bulbs until spring without harming them, you should follow several recommendations.

Daffodils must be laid out in the open air and given time to dry thoroughly. It is necessary to avoid direct sunlight on the plant, as it can be burned. It is also undesirable to keep bulbs in the open air during the summer rains.

After the flowers are completely dry, they are moved to a cool and ventilated room until planting.

Choosing a storage location

A cellar, barn and other household buildings are suitable for this. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the air temperature in the storage; it should not exceed 15-16 degrees Celsius.

It is worth noting that flowers need constant air circulation during storage at home.Therefore, they are placed in open boxes or drawers, laid out in rows. It is strictly not recommended to use plastic bags for storing daffodil bulbs.

Daffodils need to be checked approximately once every 7-10 days. If it becomes noticeable that some onions have begun to rot or are infected with any fungi or pests, they are removed so that the diseases do not spread to healthy roots.

Attention! It is not recommended to store tubers at home in winter for more than 120 days, otherwise the planting material will begin to actively deteriorate.

Is processing necessary?

Immediately before planting, it is advisable to treat the plants to eliminate the risk of infection by parasites. To do this, place all the bulbs in a container with low concentration of potassium permanganate for no more than half an hour. You can also use special store-bought preparations for these purposes, such as Fitosporin or Maxim Dachnik. The rules for processing these products are described on the packaging.

When to plant daffodils back into the ground

If you want to see buds in the next season, then the planting material must be sent into the ground in the fall. However, you need to pay attention to weather conditions and precipitation. It is advisable to plant the bulbs three to four weeks before the first frost so that they take root in the hole.

Another important point is that the air temperature before planting should not fall below +10 degrees for several weeks. In the middle climate zone, it is recommended to plant daffodils in the second ten days of September. As for those areas of the country where frosts come earlier and the climate is more severe (Ural and Siberia), planting in open ground must be done at the end of summer.

If you decide to plant daffodils in the spring, you need to select the period of time when the soil has warmed up to 7 degrees Celsius. Often this is mid-April, early May - depending on the region. But it should be remembered that there will be no flowering this season, since the plant needs to take root.

Regardless of the period in which the daffodils were planted, in order for them to decorate the flower bed every year and please the eye, you need to choose a site for the garden bed wisely. And also prepare the soil correctly.

It is advisable to choose a higher place for planting flowers, as the bulbs will quickly rot due to high humidity. It is also better to choose areas of the bed that are open to the sun and windless.

The soil is prepared in advance before planting. Depending on the type of soil, different fertilizers are suitable:

1. Heavy soil is diluted with sand and humus, as well as compost.
2. If the acidity of the soil is high, it is recommended to use wood ash or limestone flour for fertilizer.
3. A complex fertilizer - superphosphate - is suitable for all types of soil.

Bulbous flowers require drainage. To do this, pour a little sand into the bottom of the hole so that water does not stagnate in the root system of the plant.