You know spring has arrived when your garden is overflowing with sunny daffodils, but the only downside to these beautiful flowers is they have a short life span. Daffodils typically begin to bloom in March and only last a few weeks until they begin to brown and shrivel up in April.
However, if you take the time to do a quick gardening task now you can ensure you get longer-lasting blooms this time next year. Sharon, a gardener and founder of 15 Minutes of Green says you should remove daffodil flower heads once they begin wilting.
Sharon said: “As your host of golden daffodils makes way for a throng of radiant tulips, there is one easy job that you can do right now – grab your garden scissors or secateurs and snip the scruffy fading heads off your daffodils, or pinch them off with your fingers.”
When daffodils flowers begin to decay they begin to form new seeds – even when the flowers are wilting – which requires much more energy from the bulb, resulting in the plant having less energy to store away for next year.
However, if you remove the flowerhead from the plant it will then focus on strengthening the flower for next year instead of producing more seeds.
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Taking the time to pinch off the daffodil flower heads, also known as deadheading, will store more energy in the bulb so they will produce bigger blooms that will last much longer.
However, only deadhead daffodils once their flowers have faded and it looks like it is wilting as cutting them too early will not give the plant enough time to store the nutrients away it needs for next year’s growth.
Make sure to also only cut back the yellow daffodil flowerhead and let the green foliage die back without interference or you will not get any flowers next year.
Sharon said: “There’s no need to remove the rest of the foliage; let it die back naturally over the next 4–6 weeks. In theory, the plant will put all the goodness back into the bulb instead, so that it will produce more gorgeous flowers next year.”
This is a quick task that will help strengthen flowers and tidy up your garden. It should only take 15 minutes to complete so you will have an even lovelier spring garden next year.
Sharon added: “Deadheading daffodils is an easy 15-minute job – the perfect opportunity to get up from your work-from-home desk or escape the rest of the family for a walk around the garden and a little quiet ‘me’ time.”