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Some Mid-summer Chores

© Mary Lou Gripshover

There’s not a lot of daffodil activity during August in the Northern Hemisphere. Unless you’re a professional grower, and then you’d be busy packing bulbs to send to customers. By now, any bulbs you were planning to dig should have been dug and cleaned and are waiting to be replanted when the soil cools. Any excess bulbs have been shared with friends or donated to bulb sales. Have you ever thought about giving some of your extra bulbs to Habitat for Humanity? A new house could use a few daffodils, don’t you think? Check to see if there’s a Habitat group in your area.

Next month, the packages of new bulbs will begin arriving, but in the meantime you could make the labels for use in your garden. If you’re a “collector” of any plant—daffodils or something else—you’ll want to know the names of your plants, so some type of labeling is important. Currently I’m using a Brother P-touch machine that prints the name of the daffodil onto a tape. Tapes come in various colors—white type on a black background, or various colors on a clear background. The tape then goes onto a 10-inch Eon metal rose marker. I’ve been using the marker for years, and have used “permanent” marking pens which have been less than permanent! The P-touch tapes last quite well; in fact, the metal markers rust before the tapes fade. A friend uses the label-maker feature of Microsoft Word and then prints out all the information he needs to know about his daffodils onto clear Avery labels which then go onto a metal marker. There are lots of label choices out there; just find one that works for you.

You probably have a garden plan, so that you don’t dig into some other plant when you’re digging your bulbs. It’s a good idea to put the marker in the same place all the time. Front right? Front left? In the back? It really doesn’t matter as long as you’re consistent. That way you’ll always know on which side of the label to dig. When I buy new bulbs, I buy only 1 bulb of a cultivar; but bulbs multiply, so when I plant bulbs back I make a record of how many bulbs I planted. Again, I plant the individual bulbs in the same manner. Three bulbs get planted in a triangle. Four, five, or six bulbs get planted like the numbers on a die. By being consistent, I know where to dig.

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