Living in zone 6 gives me the ability to consider lots of perennials and one of them is daffodils.  Ever since we moved to Kentucky, we have never been here in the winter.  We usually leave to follow the sun about mid November and come back about the end of April. By then most of the spring bulbs have come and gone. This is the first spring we have been here and it was an amazing delight to see all the different types of daffodils I had planted.  I usually only get to see the green stems and leaves.

For those of you who are technically correct, please note that I took artistic license when I painted the picture to the right. The Monarch butterfly arrives way after the daffodils have departed.  However, I liked the composition.

 I remember the first year we moved here, I gave my daughter-in-law a present of about 100 tulip bulbs and 50 or so Daffodil bulbs.  She planted them in the fall and they graced her entryway in the following spring.  I mentioned to her that it was necessary to allow the tulips, once they lost their blossom, to get that scraggly, droopy look as tulips needed to have their strength or energy go back down towards the bulb in order to produce again and again.  Needless to say, the first weed whacker job did them in and they were never to be seen again.  However, the Daffodils did not get the “hatchet job” for some reason and they had bloomed every year in the same area since the spring of 1998.  The weed whacker caught up with them the other day by my grandson before I could issue instruction, so who knows what will happen.  These were just ready to be divided, as they were pretty tight in that one area.  I doubt they will come back again next spring.

Daffodils are among the easiest and showiest bulbs to grow in the early flowering garden. They love lots of sun but tolerate a half-day shade.  Yet, they grow just fine among deciduous trees because they flower before most trees leaf out.  I love the daffodil because it is such an early harbinger of spring.  It is sometimes referred to as a buttercup or a jonquil. These are all common names and they are all correct. But its Latin, or botanical name, is narcissus. Over the years I have purchased daffodil bulbs that bloom at different times of spring. So it might behoove you to look at the blooming time when you purchase daffodil bulbs. They are usually labeled, early spring blooming, mid-spring blooming and late spring blooming. This gives me daffodils over a longer period of time.

Once the joy of the blooms have come and gone, one of the first questions that arises is what do you do with all the foliage? Stop being so neat!  Leave it alone! If you want flowers next year you should treat it with respect. This grass like foliage actually restores the bulb’s energy through photosynthesis. It helps it prepare for blooming next year so don’t cut it back. It's okay to remove the spent flower but be sure to leave the stem intact. Even though the foliage begins to look a little scruffy let the foliage die back at least six weeks to rejuvenate the bulbs for next year’s flowers. Divide daffodils every three to five years or when the bulbs produce few flowers.

Since daffodil blooms seem to be everywhere in the spring, I always thought they were native American wildflowers, but they're not. Most of them come from Europe and have been used in gardens long before the time of the Romans.  Over the years, many different varieties of daffodils have been developed. In fact, they are divided into twelve main divisions and numerous subdivisions, which help us to keep them straight. 

One question has always stumped me.  I will see daffodils planted in someone’s yard.  Then I see clumps of them nearby in the most odd places such as down the road in a ditch in a nice clump.  I do not think they have been planted there.  How did they get there?  At any rate, lets get back to the theme of this article.

Dig as soon as the foliage starts to die, but is still visible. Separate the bulbs in the clumps, but do not tear them apart as they will come apart when ready. Of course just remember the name of the game here is to keep the foliage green as long as possible. As long as the foliage is green it is working to recharge the bulb for next year’s flower. You may damage them by tearing them apart if they are visibly attached; many bulbs stay in place for years and continue to bloom with proper fertilization. Feed bulbs in the fall; top-dress them with a slow-release 5-10-20 daffodil fertilizer. Greensand, bone meal and wood ashes from your fireplace make good organic nutrients.

However, if you don't periodically dig up and divide your daffodils, you'll find the bulbs are very small and won't produce as many flowers.   Every year in Holland they dig up and sell their largest daffodil bulbs.  I like to replant my largest bulbs where I like them to be seen and you could put the smaller bulbs in the back of your garden and fertilize them to encourage root growth.  I like to start new beds with them, myself.

As I get older and have less strength, I have to find easier ways to garden.  I have bceome the “cardboard box” gardener.  I used to use weed block, but that does not break down.  Cardboard boxes are not only biodegradable, they are cheaper and I love recycling stuff.  I always like to make “rooms” for my garden or boarder beds in certain areas.  Cardboard boxes work for me.  I do not have to roto-till the grass and all the hard work that goes with it.  I just put down my boxes after I have broken them apart to make them flat.  Newspapers work well also, but tend to fly around in the wind. Try to avoid the colored sections of newspapers as they usually have different chemicals in them.   I lay my cardboard out larger than the area I am going to cover with dirt.  That way I can lay an extra foot or so of mulch around the dirt and the mower person or weed-whacker person does not come near my bulbs or plants.

I also like raised beds as raised beds warm up quicker in the spring.  After I have laid down my cardboard in the area I want the new bed, I engage my strong 16 year-old grandson at $5.00 per hour to haul my 40 pound bags of topsoil for me to the cardboard. This is usually done in an hour or less and worth every penny of the $5.00 bill.   I use one bag of black cow to 4 bags of topsoil and he opens them up onto the cardboard.

It is into these raised prepared beds that I plant my Daffodil bulbs or any other plants or seeds I intend to plant.  However, since this is an article about daffodil dividing we will now get to the five simple steps of doing so.  Over the years, a single bulb can produce many offsets.  Most small-flowered can continue to bloom when congested.  The large-flowered daffodils suffer terribly when they become crowded and bear fewer, smaller blossoms or even none after 3 or 4 year.

So you see dividing the clumps does the daffodil a big favor, besides giving you a nice supply of bulbs without the cost of buying them.