Finally, the temperatures are rising, and those first rays of sunshine are officially kicking off gardening season! If you look at your flower beds right now, you’re probably seeing those cheerful pops of yellow, orange, and white. There’s nothing like seeing the first daffodils poke their heads out of the soil to get a gardener’s heart racing. If you’re like me, seeing that spring color makes you want even *more* flowers. Well, you’re in luck! Here’s the lowdown on how to propagate your daffodils so you can spread that spring magic all over your yard.
Different Methods
There are two main ways to get more daffodils in your garden:
Propagating by Division
Dividing the bulbs is the most popular way to multiply your daffodils. The best time to dig up these “offset bulbs” (or baby bulbs) is in late summer. Just a heads-up: these little guys usually won’t bloom until their second year in the ground because they need some time to get settled into their new home.
Here’s how you do it:
- Use a garden fork to carefully lift the bulbs out of the ground.
- Shake off the excess dirt.
- Gently snap off one or more of the small offset bulbs by hand.
- Make sure each baby bulb has a bit of the “basal plate” (the flat bottom part) attached—that’s where the roots grow from!
- Replant the mother bulb back in her original spot.
- You can plant the new baby bulbs wherever you like (full sun or partial shade works great, and they do well in pots, too) or store them in a cool, dry place until fall.
- Both the mother and the new bulbs will need a good feeding to recover and get established. Homemade compost is your best friend here!
Pro Tip: You’ll notice the offset bulbs are much smaller than the main bulb. Keep in mind that the bigger the bulb’s circumference, the bigger the flowers will be later on. Depending on their size, you can usually plant about four to six bulbs together in one spot.
Propagating from Seed
To be honest, you don’t really *have* to do anything for seed propagation. Once the flowers fade, daffodils will naturally drop their seeds on their own. The downside? They might start popping up in places where you didn’t want them. If you want to take control of the process, wait for the seed pods to mature, harvest them, and scatter the seeds exactly where you want them in your beds.
Pro Tip: Growing from seed isn’t always a sure thing with fancy hybrid daffodils. For the best results, try this with varieties labeled for “naturalizing”—they are much more reliable when it comes to spreading their own seeds!
