Nobody ever says “I should have planted fewer narcissus bulbs” when the flowers start blooming in springtime. With their cheery bobbing heads, these happy harbingers of spring lift your spirits when nothing else in the garden has yet dared to declare victory over winter.
Narcissus—or do you say daffodil?—is one of the most familiar flowers in any garden or supermarket. I defy you to find one person who can’t identify a yellow narcissus (or even a white one). And yet there’s so much more to know. We could spend a week on jonquils alone! Let’s get started, with 10 things nobody tells you about Narcissus:
1. Narcissus and daffodil are the same flower (despite what snobs say).
Daffodil is the common name of Narcissus (a Latin word), and therein lies the daffodil’s image problem. It sounds more highfalutin to invoke Latin. When snobs say they don’t like daffodils, what they may be trying to say is they don’t care for the looks of the big, yellow, common varieties of Narcissus sold in supermarkets. That unloved trumpet flower, by the way, is Narcissus pseudonarcissus.
2. There are 40 different species of Narcissus—and thousands of varieties.
Above: “The multi-headed Narcissus tazetta, a genus and species which includes the celebrated ‘Paperwhite’ cultivar, are stimulated into growth by heat and smoke. The Narcissus tazetta bulb is Mediterranean and the bulbs expect intense heat as well as bush fires,” writes Kendra. Good luck growing this flower outdoors. Photograph by Howard Sooley.
Jonquils are also narcissi, in case you were wondering. Varieties of the species is Narcissus jonquilla are known for their small, delicate flowers and intense fragrance.
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Ah, fall: when cozy sweaters come out, the air crisps up, a kaleidoscope of colorful leaves decorate sidewalks, and it’s a struggle to decide which pumpkin-flavored drink to buy at the local coffee shop. In the garden, grasses turn tawny, flowers transform to seed heads, and it’s a struggle (as you sip your pumpkin-spiced latte) to decide what needs to be done and how to prepare plants for the coming sleepy, cold months.
You’re on your own picking your hot beverage of choice, but we can help you figure out your fall gardening chores. Below, six burning questions you may have about autumn gardening.
Yes. (And sorry!) We may not always see weeds, but trust me, they’re there, quietly resting below the soil surface, waiting for us (or creatures) to disturb the soil so that they can get some sun and a drink of water—and then KABOOM! Total weed invasion. Fall is definitely a time when weed seeds are storing food for winter, or they are exploding as they dry up. My advice: don’t procrastinate. The best way to get ahead of a spring weed invasion is to get a hold of the situation in the fall. And the most important thing you can do right now is prevent weeds from going to seed. How? Remove the weeds you see. And to ensure a successful eradication, determine what weeds you have and how they reproduce. Do they spread by seed, by rhizome, or re-sprout with a deep taproot? Once you know your culprits and how they make more of themselves, then you can learn how to successfully attack them. (See Weed Wisdom: What 10 Common Weeds Are Trying to Tell You.)
Here’s an idea to prevent weeds from taking over your world: lay down a 3-inch thick layer of mulch to bury newly dropped weed seeds and prevent light from reaching them. For large weedy areas, consider the sheet mulching method where you lay down flattened cardboard or newspaper first and then pile a thick layer of mulch on top. For individual weeds, consider pouring undiluted vinegar directly on the weed. Whatever method you do choose, manage weeds as naturally and as non toxic as possible. (See Landscaping 101: Pros and Cons of Homemade Weed Killer.)
When can you stop watering plants?
Above: In the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Photograph by Marie Viljoen.
Bottom line: don’t stop watering yet, because plants still need water—just not as much as in the hot summer. After plants spend the summer devoting time and energy into leaf and flower growth, they move on to fruit and seed production, and then they take advantage of the fall season to get busy growing their roots. This means if we have a non-rainy fall, plant roots can dehydrate and plants become stressed; they will need continued drinks of water to keep them healthy. This is especially true for sunnier south-facing areas, and not so much for north-facing areas where the moisture will stay longer. Also, remember that plants under solid eaves don’t benefit from rainfall and can remain dry as a bone so you will need to hand water these areas.
Pro Tip: Newly installed or transplanted plants definitely need regular watering through the fall.
Above: Our editor Meredith uses a galvanized watering can to thoroughly soak the plants in her window boxes in San Francisco. Photograph by Liesa Johannssen for Gardenista, from Container Gardens: 5 Tips for a Perfect Window Box.
When winter finally creeps in, it also brings along its own set of dry, damaging conditions. When plants are packed under snow and ice, roots still get thirsty. The solution is to super hydrate plant roots before winter, and before the ground freezes, this means giving your plants long, deep soaks of water. When temperatures start to drop below 40 degrees F, you can wind down the water. If you’re in a warmer climate, the soil may not freeze at all, and if it doesn’t rain for a few weeks, your plants will still need a weekly dose of H2O.
I don’t know any gardeners who casually grow dahlias. Their fireworks riot of color has an intoxicating effect. You may start with one dahlia, but before you know it you have torn out the roses, planted five hundred tubers and (in at least one documented case), transformed an old tennis court into a fenced garden to make room for more flowers.
But dahlia devotees pay a price. In cold climates (read: the ground freezes), dahlia tubers need to come out of the garden if they are to survive the winter. Dig them up and store them in the basement, garage, or a protected shed—and dahlias will reward you next summer with more enormous puffball blooms. It’s worth the effort.
Here are step-by-step instructions for how to store dahlia tubers in winter:
Photography by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista.
1. Wait for the first frost.
Above: Dahlias will bloom well into autumn if you deadhead them to coax more flowers. But frost will put a stop to that.
Flowers will wilt, leaves will blacken, and dahlia stems will die back after the first frost; you’ll know it’s time to store tubers in a safe spot for the winter.
2. Dig up dahlias.
Above: Be careful when you dig up dahlias because, as you can see, a single plant may have a clump of connected tubers and a far-reaching root system.
To dig up, first cut back stalks to a height of 2 to 3 inches. Then start about a foot away from the plant, loosening soil all around the roots and digging deep enough (18 to 24 inches) to get your shovel underneath the dahlia to tease it out of the ground.
Dig up one clump of tubers at a time and be gentle; the tubers are fragile and break apart easily.
3. Rinse off dirt.
Above: Use a gentle spray from a garden hose to wash off soil so you can see the tubers and root system of individual clumps of dahlias.
In Chicago, where I grew up, tulips were pretty much the only thing that kept us going through the winter. You can survive snow, and you can survive ice, and you can even survive the razor winds that blow in from the lake to rub your face raw, if you know that one day you will look out a window and see a clump of tulips, their swan necks improbably supporting the weight of their fat flowers.
But it can be daunting, in the autumn, to figure out how precisely to make tulips happen. Which varieties to plant? Will crocuses grow in your climate? How do you gracefully make room in the garden for flowers that bloom briefly before producing withering foliage you shouldn’t cut back for weeks?
For advice, I phoned bulb grower Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens in Michigan. He grows and sells hundreds of hardy and rare, vintage varieties of tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, bluebells, and other bulbs.
“Start small,” he suggested.
Here are Scott Kunst’s 10 ideas for planning a spring bulb garden:
Photography by Michelle Slatalla except where noted.
Know your microclimate.
Above: Photograph by John Merkl for Gardenista.
Go outdoors and take stock of your garden’s microclimate: where are the sunny spots and well-drained soil? That’s where most bulbs grow best. Draw a garden plan to remind yourself.
Buy 5, 7, 9, or 11.
Above: At Rodsmarton Manor. Photograph by Britt Willoughby Dyer, for Gardenista.
While you’re looking at your garden, imagine clumps of bulbs, planted in clusters of five or more of a single variety; that’s how they look best.
Know your hardiness zone.
The US Department of Agriculture has developed a map of hardiness zones to help you choose plants that will survive in the climate of your geographic area. Check your USDA hardiness zone by entering your zip code at USDA Plant Hardiness Map; purchase bulbs that are rated for your zone. You can search for bulbs for your zone with the Heirloom Bulb Finder at Old House Gardens.
Plant bulbs in narrow, curving clusters that run parallel to the fence. “This is a trick I learned from Gertrude Jekyll,” says Kunst. “Rather than planting a big, round circle that’s three feet wide, make a gentle curve that’s about 18 inches wide. The bulbs will be in your line of vision when they bloom, and after they go over, other plants behind and in front will hide the yellow foliage.”
When deciding where to place bulbs, take size guidelines with a grain of salt. Heights of the same variety of bulb can vary from one year to the next, and in different growing zones. “It’s OK to mix up heights,” says Kunst. “It looks less garden-y than if you try to put all the tall ones in the back and all the short ones in the front.”
I’ve always known in theory that if you plant spring-flowering bulbs (such as tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and alliums) you can fill your garden with successive waves of color for three months while you wait for summer. But in my garden, after the spring flowers on the azaleas and rhododendrons fade? Nothing—until June. I eye my neighbors’ more colorful gardens with envy and initiate late-night talks with my husband about why this is the year we should hire a landscape designer.
This fall I plan to be proactive and plant bulbs—which I know is a thing you do in autumn because one year I went to our local nursery and asked for alliums. (I’m particularly enamored with the extraterrestrial look of alliums, with their large pompom heads and tall, slender stalks.) But it was during the height of summer, and the nice lady who worked at the nursery had to break it to me that I’d have to wait until September or later for the bulbs to be available for purchase. Like many other bulbs, they are planted in the fall and bloom in the spring, she told me, with not the slightest bit of disdain.
A job requirement for working at nurseries must be an uncanny ability to refrain from rolling one’s eyes when asked idiotic questions. Thankfully, my interview with Barbara Pierson, nursery manager of White Flower Farm, in which I asked beginner questions about spring-flowering bulbs, was conducted over email. (Thank you, Barbara, for not inserting any eye-roll emojis.) Here’s what I learned:
Q: What are bulbs, anyway?
Above: Tulip bulbs ready for the planting. Photograph by Meredith Swinehart.
A: A bulb is “essentially a storage organ” for plants, says Barbara; all the food they need is concentrated in a compact, onion-shaped mass. “True bulbs have scales, which are fleshy and become leaves after the bulb begins to grow.” They’re often lumped together with corms, rhizomes, and tubers, because they all grow underground and produce plants, but they are different. Corms don’t have scales; rhizomes grow horizontally and can produce more plants; and tubers have eyes (like potatoes) that can grow into sprouts or roots. (See Everything You Need to Know About Bulbs and Tubers for a roundup of some of our favorite springtime bulb and tuber flowers.)
Q: Which bulbs are the easiest to grow?
Above: Barbara recommends ‘Globemaster’ alliums. “They are easy to grow and, most times, will flower the first year after planting in the fall,” she says. “Plant them four to five inches below the soil line in a border close to other perennials so the foliage is hidden when it dies down during and after flowering. Remembering to let bulb foliage die down naturally is the key to having them come back year after year.” Photograph by Justine Hand.
Gardeners have been moving away from using pesticides in their gardens at a swift pace in recent years, as awareness of their negative impacts spreads (thank goodness!). However, pesticides aren’t only introduced to the landscape via a homeowner’s application: Pesticides, including neonicotinoids (aka neonics), can also hitch a ride on plants you buy that have been treated with them at the nursery. And when a plant is treated with neonics, every part of it becomes poisonous (and not just to the insects it targets, but also pollinators, pets, and humans, too)—and those pesticides can persist for months and even years.
With the turning of the season, I wondered about the bulbs I hoped to plant this fall: Could I be unknowingly introducing pesticides to my yard?
Above: ‘Dream Touch’, ‘Copper Image’, ‘Vovos’, and ‘Palmyra’ tulips from Clare Coulson’s garden. Photograph by Clare Coulson, from Gardener’s Dilemma: To Tulip or Not to Tulip.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer for this,” replied Stephanie Lucas, the director of horticulture for the Madison Park Conservancy, to whom I had reached out because she has lectured on bulbs. “Something like ninety percent of all tulips are still farmed in the Netherlands, and if you think about the amount of pest and disease pressure for that density, it is not at all surprising that farmers will be using every tool in their arsenal to continue to maintain that.” I had hoped that the European Union’s ban on neonicotinoids might mean that bulbs coming from the E.U. were a good bet, but Lucas explains, “The EU has banned a lot of neonicotinoids, but they’re only banned on crops that are considered to be particularly attractive to bees. Eighty percent of crops in the Netherlands remain unaffected by this ban because of that clause.”
Tjerk Dalhuisen, from the Pesticide Action Network (Europe) recently told the U.K. publication Gardens Illustrated, “The mass production of bulbs tends to be really unsustainable. Unfortunately, like in growing many garden plants, very toxic pesticides are used to control pests and fungi. The residues come with the bulbs and in the plants. If you want a lively environment with bees and butterflies, these bulbs don’t belong in your garden or on your balcony. Fortunately, there are organic alternatives, free of synthetic pesticides. Unfortunately, their supply is still limited but growing.”
And it is true that there is a small-but-growing movement of organic bulb suppliers in the U.K., where gardeners can shop at Organicbulbs.com, Organiccatalogue.com, and Organicgardener.co.uk. Stateside, I discovered there are fewer options. Brent & Becky’s is one source several eco-minded gardeners, including Edwina von Gal, the founder of Perfect Earth Project, recommend. The Hudson Valley Seed Co. says that all of the bulbs they sell are “free of neonicotinoids, as well as systemic fungicides and systemic pesticides.” For anyone who purchases bulbs wholesale, A.D.R. Bulbs Inc. says “all bulbs grown at their Dutch facility are neonicotinoid-free.”
On the plus side, Lucas points out that most flowers that grow from bulbs are not favored by pollinators, “Bulbs are cultivated plants. Tulips in particular don’t look remarkably close to their wild cousins…. These plants are so far away from their native place and so altered by human hands that most pollinators don’t recognize them [as food].”
Nonetheless, we do know that neonics can persist in soil for a long time. According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation’s paper “How Neonicotinoids Can Kill Bees” residues have been found in woody plants up to six years after soil drench application, an “untreated plants have been found to absorb the residues of some neonicotinoids that persisted in the soil from the previous year.” I could not find research that indicated if neonic-treated bulbs leech into the surrounding soil, so I reached out to the entomologist and ecologist Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, to ask what he knew. Tallamy told me, “We don’t know how far they leach from the plant, so the safest bet is to find a bulb dealer who does not use them.” If you can find organic bulbs, buy them.
Above: Tulip ‘Recreado’ with Geranium tuberosum. Photograph by Maayke de Ridder for Gardens Under Big Skies: Reimagining Outdoor Space, the Dutch Way, from Gardening 101: Growing Tulips the New Dutch Way.
We’re not going to tell you to put a halt on your entire bulb order, but what we home gardeners can do is let our bulb suppliers know that we want more organic and pesticide-free bulbs. “Provide the motivation,” says Tallamy. “Let them know there is a market.” Lucas adds that currently, “there isn’t a financial incentive to do product labeling particularly on a product that costs often less than $0.50 per unit retail.” When ordering your bulbs this fall, consider sending an email or making a call to let your preferred vendor know that you want to buy pesticide-free bulbs, or bring it up at the garden center if you’re shopping there. Gardeners have already persuaded bulb catalogs to carry and promote more native bulbs like Camassia, Brodiaea, and Triteleia, perhaps we can help bulb growers move away from pesticides, too?
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