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Cut Daffodils and Tulips

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Lane Greer

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Daffodils for sale
Photo Credit: Lane Greer
Daffodils come in so many sizes and shapes, including single and double types, with colors ranging from yellow to white to salmon.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils…
  - William Wordsworth

 

For some people, robins are the first sign of spring. But I believe, like Wordsworth, that daffodils herald the season. I love to see huge groups of daffodils being grown on a hillside, and I always want to bring part of that scene indoors.

Daffodils make good cutflowers, as do tulips, but there are a couple of tricks to getting these two bloomin’ beauties to perform to their maximum.

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Double daffodils
Photo Credit: Lane Greer
Double daffodils are heavy and rarely stand up on their own. View them at their best in a tall vase.
Cut daffodils. As soon as you cut a daffodil stem, you’ll see the problem. The runny, sticky sap the plant exudes is poisonous to other cutflowers. Many people think that daffodils can’t be combined with any other flower, but here’s a tip: Place them by themselves in water for 24 hours. After that, they’re safe to combine in mixed bouquets. For long vase life, cut daffodils the minute they open and use floral preservative.

Some of the best daffodils to cut are the loveliest, since the cultivars with double flowers are heavy and rarely stand up on their own in the garden, especially after a good rain. (Just use a tall vase to keep them upright indoors.)

Facts
  • Want tulips with really long stems? Plant the group known as “single lates,” which bloom later than most types. Darwin hybrids and Triumphs also have long stems. (Triumphs have large flowers as well.)
Tips
  • If your tulips have really short stems and are blooming down in the foliage, this is known as “blasting” and is caused by a lack of cold weather. For gardeners in the Deep South and in other warm-winter regions, stick your tulip bulbs in the refrigerator for a couple of months right after you purchase them. Plant them in November or December, after cold weather has really begun.
  • For large flowers, buy large bulbs. Bulbs are categorized by circumference, which is listed in centimeters. Try to get the largest bulbs you can, with a minimum of 10-12 cm.
 
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