Evening star., 1950-08-27

With April, you must use daffodilS.
embryo in the 6-week period i'm
mediately after their blooms fade
2. DaffodilS will not tolerate
standing in water and yet at
seasons they like a lot of water
regardless of how contradictory
this sounds. Their soil ideal is
river Silt-Sandy but full of humuS.
8. Daffodils resent being dis
turbed and would prefer to be left
alone from year to year.
4. Daffodils have the diet habits
and requisites of the potato.
Location.
You can locate daffodil plant
ings most anywhere in your gar
den If the drainage is good, in the
sun, in the open woodland, shady
corners, perennial borders, foun.
dation planting. in formal beds, or
naturaliZed beneath the turf in
open meadows.
Soil.
The daffodil will turn in a score
like the wild flowers in the fields
and in almost any soil, If it is
well drained.
For New Beds or Rows.
Cd Dig up the soil about 18
inches deep. Lay the first spade
full to one side.
CD Dig in at base plenty of
coarse gravel and sand If there Is
any question about drainage.
Cd In the bottom spade depth
chop in 80 per cent cow manure
or some humus, and 80 per cent
sand. Dig in a quart or more of
bone meal to the square yard.
Then throw the top spadeful back
in and chop in some sand if you
have 1t. but 1t isn't essential be-
cause it's what's beneath the bulbs
that counts-not what is over
them.
Planting.
In making new bed or row,
throw out the top spade and lay
the bulbs down 6 to 9 inches apart,
either between single bulbs or be-
tween little unit clumps of three
bulbs arranged in a little triangle
3 inches between the bulbs in the
clump. The bulbs should be at
least 7 inches deep in their bases.
If you are not preparing a full
bed but merely slipping in some
clumps in an old bed or in
perennial border, then dig hole
10 inches deep and wide enough
to work. chop in a double hand
full of humus and sand each and
add a handful of bone meal
chop in the base of the hole
filling in some of the top soil un-
til you are up to about Z inches
from the top when firmed down.
Lay in your bulb or bulbs and
firm clean earth around each bulb.
Then I'LL up hole and firm down
well.
When to plant: Plant as soon
as you can get bulbs. Usually the
growers get new bulbs to you in
early September.
Plant only sound bulbs. Always
examine the base where rot usu-i
ally starts and sometimes Is hard
to detect. Rot usually is betrayed
by a soft base or it smells bad.
Fertilizer or Feeding.
Pinch off all blooms as soon as
they fade-thus throwing all
strength into the bulbs.
Feed right after the blooms
fade.
Use a chemical fertilizer that
runs high in potash, or, as old
gardeners would call it, a potato
fertilizer.
Sprinkle the fertilizer around
and in between rows-till you
cover the ground we'll, then rake
it into the soil.
Watering.
See that the daffodils are we'll
watered-at least every 10 days
in the period right after the
blooms fade.
Lifting or Replanting.
Daffodils are not lifted until
the clumps get too thick and the
bulbs can't all get enough to eat
to produce good flowers. They
usually get too thick in 4 or 5
years.
When your clump gets too
thick. dig them, revitalize and re-
work the soil as you did in the
beginning and replant.
Diseases and Insects.
Dafodils suffer from few dis
eases or insects. Bulb rot is about
all that ever happens-and this
results in part from bad drainage
and in part from fungus infection
you got from the grower in the
beginning.
There is a sort of maggot that
gets in the bulb at times-the hot
water treatment Is most effective
before planting. We have never
had the maggots around here so
far as I know.