Daffodil Tips & Storage
Daffodil season has finally arrived in the northern Adirondacks! It’s a long time coming. And now we will rush to harvest and store as many stems as we can. We have thousands of daffodils that bloom within a few weeks.
Here are some important daffodil tips:
Many daffodils can be harvested in “goose neck” stage as we often hear in our industry, BUT white-petaled varieties may not develop fully when harvested too early. You may see underwhelming and/or discolored flowers. I see this most with double-petaled daffodils.
Store daffodils in separate vessels for the first 24 hours after harvest. Studies show their sap can shorten the vase life of other flowers.
Daffodils hydrate through their petals. If you harvest flowers open and notice the petals fading and wrinkling quickly, your humidity in storage may be too low. If you cannot control your humidity you may consider wrapping your flowers in paper as shown in the video to lessen dehydration in the petals or put your narrow vases or buckets inside a large tote with a damp towel to increase your humidity. Daffodil prefer a relative humidity of around 90% in post harvest storage and a temperature near freezing (about 33-35°F).
We make sure our daffodils receive a full night of hydrating in an airtight bin before we design with them. This is especially important for flowers that will be out of water the following day in wearables like corsages, boutonnières, flower crowns, etc.
Over time, many specialty, hybridized daffodils weaken and stop blooming. The typical life is about 3-5 years. SOME varieties of daffodils naturalize and spread. Check out this list of naturalizing daffodils. These varieties can be dug up and divided and replanted. If you’ve ever seen someone with a full lawn of beautiful daffodils in the spring, they are likely “naturalized.”
4 ways to store/prepare Daffodils for use/sale.
Method 1: Daffodils can be dry stored, wrapped in craft paper and laid flat in a cooler or refrigerator. The paper helps hold the buds tight and aids the flowers in holding on to water.
Method 2: Daffodils can be stored in your regular flower buckets, but take care to add something stiff, like a kebab skewer, to each bunch to prevent the stems from curving.
Method 3: Use tall narrow vessels to prevent stem curving. Fill each vessel full. We re-purpose the hurricane candle vessels that are a part of our event rental stock. The different heights work great for different daffodil varieties.
Method 4: Use a hydration chamber (air tight bin with a damp paper towel) for small flowers that you want to use for design work. Place the “chamber” in a cooler overnight to allow your flowers to hydrate fully.
Check out the American Daffodil Society for more resources. To connect with fellow daffodil nerds, join the Facebook group: Daffodil Addiction.