Hi Everyone!
I have a puzzling question. I went out about a week ago and checked my daffodils - thrilled that they had multiplied from 5 to 16! They were poked up thru the ground about an inch. They were my first purchased bulbs that bloomed last year - and were beautiful! Well, a few days ago, I went to do some yard cleanup and found that 3 of the 5 clumps of daffodils are gone! There was one bulb on top of the ground, but it was kinda squishy and not right. Don't know how it got there - and don't know where my other bulbs went to. Any ideas? I saw no evidence of digging, and have no clue how that one on top of the ground got there.
I'm located in northcentral PA - and have never heard of this before.
Thanks!
Theresa
Disappearing Daffodils
Theresa,
I have to go with animals on this one. The two main suspects are squirrels and woodchucks. Early spring is the time squirrels root for nuts buried the previous autumn and, boy, do they love bulbs. Common wisdom states that daffodils are the one bulb which animals don't touch, but don't believe it. As to their modus operandi, I put in a couple dozen bareroot plantings of strawberries (admittedly not a bulb)a few years back and everyone of them was literally pulled up out of the soil and left scattered and eaten on top of the ground. As to your squishy bulb, I will guess that it got dug up and left out during a couple of rainstorms. It doesn't take much to squishify. Another possible explanation is that your bulbs were not planted deep enough and winter freezing, heaving and thawing, combined with a very wet spring has literally pushed them right out of the ground.
Randy Jenkins
Thanks for the reply, Randy! I never thought about squirrels. That would make sense. To think, those ungreatful buggers could be stealing my bulbs - even after we feed them! LOL I don't think they heaved because they've been in for a couple of years, and I planted them 4" deep - but I won't say it's not impossible. I lost some irises that way, but then, they are planted much shallower.
I do have one question tho - I've never had a bulb heave while it was growing - can they do this? It was up a couple inches and when I went to check them again, 9 in a row were gone. Sounds like a varmit, doesn't it?!
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question.
Have a great day!
Theresa
The squirrels have been having a feast on my lillium bulbs! Everyday, I find a few more scattered on top of the ground...
I forgot about some daffodills that had naturalized and put an open bottomed raised bed over the top of them. They were then buried by 20" of soil in addition to the 6 " depth I had already put them...Imagine my suprise when the first bloom of the season came up as a daffodill in the middle of my new raised strawberry patch!Maybe because I plant them too deep but I have never lost one to any animal and they have reproduced and bloomed every year. Now I just need to cage the strawberries plants so the deer will quit grazing them down to 2" bare stems!
Oh, ig there are no signs of digging try checking for furroughs from moles. They can push the bulbs ub from below and sometimes you don't see the furrows right away.
This message was edited Tuesday, Apr 10th 9:29 PM
I know this is hard to believe, but some bulbs will actually move to the depth that they prefer. They will work themselves either deeper or shallower.
I would be surprised if squirrels are the buggers here, daffodils tend to repel them. In fact they are so bad to dig up my tulips, that I plant a few dime-sized daffodils in with the tulips and it worked this year.
As for the word "squishify"--I love it!
If you didn't see any signs of digging, it may have been ground heave. They can handle being 8 inches deep. But in the case of Zanymuse, the bulbs clearly found their level in the soil that they wanted. Ajuga will do the same thing.
Thank you all for your feedback on this. I'm quite new to bulbs and only had the ones that were here when we got the house. These are my first plantings - from 2 years ago. Can bulbs heave after they started to grow? These were up about 2" when they just disappeared. I know it's a silly question, but I had thought that they would only heave when dormant. Also - will they heave after being established? I thought they were happy buggers because they were multiplying so. Thanks for putting up with my silly questions. :-)
Theresa