For the record, when you are planting narcissus, (from September through December in B.C.), you are supposed to spade the ground at least twelve inches deep, and improve your soil with well-rotted compost or planting mix. The American Daffodil Society advises planting daffodils on hillsides or in raised beds (to ensure proper drainage) in sunny sites. Position the bulbs pointy-top up; they should be planted at least twice as deep as the bulb is high (so a 2 inch tall bulb should get planted 4 inches deep).
Here on the Wet Coast, I always give my bulbs a liberal coating of bulb dust to help prevent rot before I plant them. Because I like to layer bulbs (bedding smaller bulbs on top of large bulbs), I always plant my daffodils six inches deep, unless they're miniatures, and because I always leave my bulbs down for years, I put a skimpy handful of bone meal at the bottom of each hole to help them bloom in future years. (As the American Daffodil Society points out, adding bone meal when you plant narcissus does nothing for them the first year; the first season blooms are the result of your bulb grower's hard work.) Once you've buried your bulbs, press the ground down firmly, to get rid of the air, and water them in well; daffodils need lots of water when they're growing, so they need to be kept moist until the rains come. In the spring when the leaf tips emerge, top-dress your narcissi with 0-10-10 or 0-0-50. (They don't like high nitrogen fertilizers.)
In a normal year, most daffodils will be blooming from April through May. Once they finish blooming, the bulbs start working on producing next year's blooms. They'll need to continue to be watered for about three weeks after they've finished blooming, and then (the hard part), left standing. You should pull off the seed pods so the plant puts its full energy into strengthening the bulb for next season's production, but leave the foliage alone until it turns yellow and dries off. If you cut it, you'll ruin next year's flowering. In practice here, this means that you'll have stands of unsightly daffodil foliage from mid-May through June. Some people braid or tie up their daffodils to make their beds look neater; I prefer to plant my daffodils among other plants that will (hopefully) grow up and around them, drawing the eye away from their unsightliness.
