Hi everyone!

This is my first year of daffodils. So far, they're doing well! But the first ones to come up are now having their flowers expire, one by one. So I'm wondering if I should dead head them?

I know to leave the foliage as they'll need it for next year's growth.

Thanking people in advance for replies.

Joanna- I wait to see if they were pollinated. A seed pod will develop if pollinated. If not a week or two later I will cut the flower stalk. If there is a seed pod I just let it go and do its thing. Many blessings for a wonderful week ahead!

Altheabyanothername said:Joanna- I wait to see if they were pollinated. A seed pod will develop if pollinated. If not a week or two later I will cut the flower stalk. If there is a seed pod I just let it go and do its thing. Many blessings for a wonderful week ahead!

Thank you @Altheabyanothername! Forgive my ignorance, but what does the seed pod look like?

Right behind the flower head where it attaches to the stalk the seed pod develops. The flower will whither but a little green bump will grow. Very similar to amaryllis or daylilies, but smaller in size due to the daffodil being smaller. Then I let nature take over. In the spring around the daffodil clumps you may see what looks like little chives come up. Those would be your baby daffodils. If you are new to daffodils the advice I would give you is plant bulbs two years in a row to have a good display every year forward.
May joy surround you!

Thank you so much @Altheabyanothername! So if there's no little green bump, then the seed pod hasn't been fertilized, and I can deadhead?

I always dead head, because my daffodils usually spread by developing little new bulbs, not by seed, and I want them to put their energy into that rather then setting seed pods.

Could there be a zone difference here maybe? (My zone is closer to 5b than to 8a).

IrisLilli said:I always dead head, because my daffodils usually spread by developing little new bulbs, not by seed, and I want them to put their energy into that rather then setting seed pods.

Could there be a zone difference here maybe? (My zone is closer to 5b than to 8a).

Maybe.... I wonder. A farm near me has the most amazing border dafs, and they never touch them. The pop up in greater abundance each year.

Food for thought.

Joanna- If the daffodil has not pollinated, there would not be any reason to save the flower stalk once its flower wilts. I would deadhead to improve appearance. My daffodils reproduce both ways bulbs and seeds. I have done it that way thinking that is what naturalizing means. It can be hard in Texas to naturalize daffodils due to our lack of freezing weather. I thought they need all the help they can get. Maybe in colder climates seedlings would not survive like they do here. Somewhere I heard plant two years in a row and I did each year 4 or 5 different cultivars. Both years they were totally different cultivars. I have noticed every other year certain types bloom heavier than other years. May you and your garden be blessed.

And you too @altheabyanothername! Thank you again!