Caring for Indoor Daffodils

TheGardenLady received this question about daffodils:

I have also recently received a small pot of daffodils for indoors [probably from the local grocery store. It has the colored foil around it]. They doubled in length in one day, look healthy, and have smaller buds about to come out. I keep them in my room which is fairly cool and can get sunny. I’m wondering if I need to move the bulbs to a bigger pot at any point as well as if I can share the bulbs with friends once they stop flowering.

Daffodils like coolish indoor temperatures, 50-75°F, 10-24°C, the cooler the temperature, the longer the blooms last: medium humidity- too wet and you might get bulb rot: and bright indirect sunlight coming from the South/East/West

Do not waste your time repotting the daffodil bulbs for this season’s indoor flowering. Repotting causes stress on the plant which may cause the flowers to die.

The daffodils in the pot may have been forced (see here) to bloom at a specific time. Forcing is done by using special lighting techniques, fertilizing techniques and temperature control (see here). Enjoy the flowers by putting the little pot in a cache pot (see here) and bringing the entire thing to the room where you are entertaining for all to enjoy.

When the flowers have stopped blooming, you can indeed share the bulbs. But TheGardenLady would not recommend trying to plant these bulbs again for next year’s indoor flowering because the forcing used a lot of the nutrients the bulbs need. You may get flowers but don’t bank on it. Buy new bulbs and plant them for indoor flowering if you want, they are cheap enough, or wait and buy another pot of daffodils in flower again next year.

But don’t throw these bulbs away. Both you and your friends can plant the bulbs outdoors after the daffodils have bloomed. Or you can even plant the bulbs with flowers outdoors before the flowers have stopped blooming and you will probably get blooms next year because outdoors the soil, temperature and lighting conditions will be optimum. The proper time to plant daffodil bulbs is in the fall; but if you put a few bulbs or flowering plants in now, it won’t be detrimental.

TheGardenLady was just given a pot of daffodils in bloom- it was given as a memorial to remember a dear friend who passed away. She brought the pot home from the service and planted the flowering daffodils outdoors for everyone to enjoy. The bulbs didn’t mind the stress of this replanting because it was outdoors. The daffodils took less than one day to adjust to their most spacious location and are happily blooming their heads off.

Enjoy your lovely daffodils.