I really want to chop off my daffodil leaves 😡

[canthavetoomanylights]

I won’t, not yet, but goodness me they make everywhere look so untidy. I almost regret planting them.
Does anyone have any clever solutions?

I just pack in other plants in tightly around them so that as the daff leaves die off the other plants hide them.

At the moment in my garden the plants hiding them are foxgloves, aquilegias, forget me knots, erigeron, geraniums and alchmilla mollis.

I use the 'pack 'em in' method to avoid ever weeding too.

Plant shorter varieties as the leaves are less obvious. The leaves of taller varieties at the back of the border are hidden as everything else grows up.

I know! I've got pots so just shove all the daff/hyacinth/tulip etc ones behind the bench and forget them till next year. I do water them but I hate the way they look right now!

Why, are we not supposed to cut them?

No, they need the nutrients in the leaves to go back into the bulbs for next year..

@Summerhillsquare they need the leaves to photosynthesise and send energy down to the bulb so they flower next year. If you cut too soon it can starve them of nutrients.

I cut mine!!

Does anyone know the right time of year to dig them up? I might try and get them out and in to pots so I can hide them behind the greenhouse once they’re done.

Ugh I know, it's such a trade off with daffodils - a month of beauty followed by months of mess. I'm itching to cut but the leaves are all still green.

@canthavetoomanylights you shouldn’t dig them up until early summer and the leaves have started to turn yellow

i went for the cut this week, they'd pretty much all gone over by now. Ours are naturalised in the lawn so just got cut by the mower.

I just cut them, they always come back

I always cut mine off and they seem fine.

I cut some of mine and leave others, depending where they are in the garden. I also leave them in situ. They all come back the same, year after year🤷‍♀️

Oh now you’re tempting me to do it. They do seem to have been finished for ages, so perhaps they’ve had long enough.

I chop mine , I still seem to have plenty of daffodils each year .

They need 6 weeks apparently.

Mine are looking really ragged (in large containers) so I am hoping to replant them soon as they are irritating me!

My question is, should I just leave them in the containers over summer, lift and store them or put them in the ground somewhere?

They are a mix of new tete a tete and some older daffodil bulbs. This worked quite well as I ended up with two ‘waves’ of flowering. But now they look like the pots that time forgot…

My mum ties the leaves (from each bulb) together into a single loose knot. They look a bit tidier if she does that. Never tried it myself, so I don’t know how easy it is to do.

I live opposite a large village green and every year there is a beautiful show of hundreds and hundreds of daffodils. The council cuts the grass around them.

Last Monday the council came and cut the whole green, daffs and grass to the usual mown height.

They do this every year and we still get the same incredible display every spring.

Just cut the leaves off...

I saw a TikTok video where someone plaited them. It looked stunning. I know if I tried that it would just look insane though.

My mum used to double them over and tie them up with string. Much tidier. Never seen it anywhere else though. The council round here mow the verges and they still come up each year.

Last year I chopped ours off and carried armfuls of them down to the garden bin. Ended up with horrific burns/rash on my arms from the sap! I’m not even touching them this year - they can just rot!

Knot them together lightly and tuck the ends in.

This has unlocked such a retro-memory I'd totally forgotten about. You used to see knotted daffodil leaves all the time in the past - gardens and parks - I'm not sure I ever realised why until this very moment and haven't thought about it for years.

I think the most current advice is leave leaves alone for 6 weeks but don't tie or plait. They need full sun exposure for that time to recharge the bulb. As with everything its not a strict cut off so maybe your offsets will be a tiny bit smaller or something its 5 weeks rather than 6 etc.
Just cut them if its annoying you and its been approx 6 weeks.