Indoor Daffodils: More Than Paperwhites

Last time I gave you the low-down on growing paperwhite bulbs indoors but did you know you can grow other daffodils inside for winter blooming? Although paperwhites and other tazetta type narcissi don't need cold treating other types such as trumpets and large cup types do. It takes time to get daffodils to bloom indoors but it's not difficult. Read on and I'll show you how.

Trumpet and Large Cup daffodils will need a cold treatment of about 12 weeks in order to coax them into blooming. This can be accomplished either by potting the bulbs up and refrigerating them or putting them in a cold (but not freezing),dark basement or garage.If you have already given the bulbs a cold treatment in your fridge this step is unnecessary.Just pot them up and bring them into the light when you see the new shoots growing.

You can use any flower pot with drainage holes for your daffodil bulbs but make sure to give the roots about 5 or 6 inches of room to grow.Use a light potting soil and make sure to moisten the soil. Make sure the bulbs don't touch to protect against rotting. .

You should start to see shoots in about 8-10 weeks. When you see the flower buds emerge it's time to move the pots into the light.Keep the pots in bright but indirect light for the first week or so. When you see flower bulbs breaking through the soil it's time to give them as much sun as possible. To further mimic natural conditions put them back in a cool dark area at night. This will make them think it's early spring.

If you don't want to stake the flower stems you can water them with an alcohol solution and change the position of the pots every day. The flower stalks will grow toward the light when grown in a sunny window.See my post on growing paperwhites for instructions on the pickling method using liquor and water to keep your daffodil stems short and strong.

Make sure to keep your daffodils watered during blooming to help the flowers last longer. Daffodil leaves will grow for about 10 weeks after blooming and during this time they store up energy for the following year. If you've planted paperwhites it's unlikely that they will bloom again. You should treat them as annuals and discard them as soon as they are finished blooming.Other narcissus types will bloom again if you let the leaves develop undisturbed.

For daffodils other than paperwhites you have two choices after the leaves die back. You can leave them in their pots and begin the process again in the late autumn or early winter. Or you can plant them in a dry place and treat them as you would the rest of the daffodils in your garden. Be aware that it may take the bulbs two more years to bloom in the garden after being forced into blooms indoors.

As you can see forcing daffodils indoors is not difficult. If you have daffodil bulbs that you didn't get planted before your soil froze you can get them started inside now so you won't have to miss enjoying spring daffodils next year.

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