Calling all bulb experts...

[Silentrunning]

My Daffodils are all done blooming and the flowers have dropped off. I would like to move them because their present location looks kind of stupid. My question is- would it be best to 1. Transplant the entire flower bed now with the dirt attached? 2. Cut the leaves off while they are still green and harvest the bulbs to dry over the summer? 3. Leave them until the leaves dry up and fall off and then harvest the bulbs for drying? Ian totally out of my comfort zone when it comes to bulbs. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Owdboggy]

Best of all is to leave them to die down naturally and then dig them up. However if you are in a hurry, then dig them up now with as much soil on the bulbs as you can and without damaging the leaves as much as you can. Replant immediately. Cutting off the green leaves is the worst thing you can do to any bulb. they need those leaves to feed the bulb for flowering next season.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Raises my hand here. Person with over 150 Thousand bulbs and counting. We have been transplanting bulbs every spring for the last 10 years. Yes, we are doing that, last week and this week, now. You can move them with their flower on, you can move them with all their green on. But we never move them when all green is died down or in the fall. After all these years of planting a few thousand fresh bulbs every fall, it became time that they needed to be thinned.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Raises my hand here. Person with over 150 Thousand bulbs and counting. We have been transplanting bulbs every spring for the last 10 years. Yes, we are doing that, last week and this week, now. You can move them with their flower on, you can move them with all their green on. But we never move them when all green is died down or in the fall. After all these years of planting a few thousand fresh bulbs every fall, it became time that they needed to be thinned.

Today I learned something new because I would have thought the opposite!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Today I learned something new because I would have thought the opposite!

When transplanting them in the spring, with their green, they not only have the green with them, but all summer in new spot, all fall in new spot, all winter in new spot.