Lots of leaves but no flowers on spring bulbs

[Whatwouldnanado]

I bought bulbs in flower last Spring and have been hoping for a pretty display this year on the bakers rack I have by our back door. However all I have is a lot of leaves, not a flower in sight. The bulbs are dwarf narcissi, including Tete a Tete, Minnow and Puablo bought from our reputable nursery. Any ideas please? Should I dump the lot or is there hope for next year?

Leave them and see what happens next year. It can take a year or two for bulbs to settle in.

My bulbs are only at the leaves stage. Would yours normally have flowered by now?

I'm the same. Planted loads of tulips, daffodils and snowdrops and all I have is leaves. I had heard that they can take a couple of years to flower.

Are you not just a bit early to expect the buds/flowers?
I planted bulbs last year and they flowered. They are currently coming back again in the pots but aren't at the stem/bud stage yet

They may still come up? We’ve only got some types up yet.

If not, they’re called ‘blind’ and you can google to fertilise them or something for next year.

It could depend where you are and how exposed the spot is.

Our snowdrops have all but finished, some of the crocus have finished while some are still going strong.
Tete a Tete have been up and out for about 2 wks, also the other daffs, some still in bud.
The muscari/grape hyacinth are just starting to poke through and are a lot later than last year.
Lots of leaves, but no tulips yet - they're always late anyway.

Definitely leave the leaves on till they turn brown and wither - the bulbs collect energy from the sun using their green leaves. Add some compost and nettle tea, and don’t let them dry out fully in the summer, and you will certainly hsve flowers in coming years. Give them time.

Where are you in the uk? It's still quite early.

Thanks for all the replies. We are in the NW. Grape muscari are already flowering, and old faithful similar bulbs are in flower at the front door which is more shaded than the back. It's very strange! The bulbs were flowering in pots when I bought them last year and I left the leaves to go brown and drop off, on shelves behind our summerhouse and brought them forward on great anticipation when all the leaves started showing! I had repotted them into slightly larger pots, using good compost so wouldn't think it's a feed issue.

They might not have been planted deep enough

Second the not planted deep enough!

Same problem here. I think they didn't get enough sun.

Compost isn't really the same as a feed though. With bulbs, the flower for next year forms within the bulb after the previous flowers have withered. The remaining leaves are busy photosynthesising and building up food for next year's bud before they start dying back.

I'd suspect that maybe they were kept on the dry side last year, or that it wasn't sunny enough where they were. I'd recommend you water them with plant food (Phostrogen is good) and hope for the best next year!

Thank you all very much. When I reported them I remember doing so at about the same depth they were in their original pot so possibly quite shallow. I will give them a feed now, let them do their thing and die back then pot them on again only deeper. Is the rule twice the height of the bulb?

Twice the height of the bulb is good, but depth underneath is important too, so there's plenty of material for the roots to spread into. I don't believe that planting them shallowly will affect the flowering performance to be honest, insufficient nutrients/water are far more likely to be responsible.

I’m north west and I have ONE narcissi open so far. Depending on where you are it can add a few weeks delay.

Northwest here too, and only have a few daffs and crocuses putting in an appearance.
They need feeding after they’ve flowered, to give them a boost for next year.

I do have a pot of narcissi in full bloom at the front door so I think the others just need more love! Thinking back, they were tucked away over the Summer and not watered regularly. Thank you for the advice.

Same here! Never happened before. I’ve got some normal yellow daffodils flowering, but a couple of clumps are just leaves. Even the flowers are pissed off

I'm south east and in my front garden I have some hyacinths in flower, and some crocuses just coming into flower 🤷🏻‍♀️ But all my daffs and tulips are not at the flower stage yet in the front. In the back literally nothing is in flower yet!! We've had such a mix of weather here with all the storms etc that I just think things are a bit mixed up.

Any signs of buds?

Same with me in the SW. All quite slow.

I have a pot of pueblo, bought last week from a small and very reliable local nursery, which are not in flower. They were marked as April flowering. It may well be that when you bought them last year they have been forced, which might have both brought them on quicker for commercial sale, and depleted their energy more than normal flowering. But I wouldn't give up hope - you may well get flowers yet.

My potted daffodils and crocus have all flowered well in their first and second years, - snowdrops only had leaves last year, and one solitary flower this year - last year I over-planted them with violas that flowered all over winter, but they were just left on their own this year- I'm leaving them alone and will just hope for the best next year again North east here, south facing garden.

I would guess that the bulbs are too crowded now & need moving individually further apart. Blindness is a common outcome of bulb overcrowding.