Here in east Texas there are a lot of daffodils that have naturalized, even along the roadside. I don't know if they'll do that in Central Texas, but here are a few goodies up here.

Grand Primo
Lent Lily
Campernelles
Jonquils (there's one spot here with the whole side of the road covered in jonquils - the fruity fragrance hits you as soon as you open the car window!)

These others have done well for me in the DFW area:
Chinese Sacred Lily (and other paperwhites)
Ehrlicheer
Avalanche/Seventeen Sisters (a selection from Gran Primo)
Thalia

You should check out Chris Weisinger's recommendations on the Southern Bulb web site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Bulb Narcissus

I've had very good luck with "Ice Follies". Maybe the ones that came back but didn't bloom didn't get enough water last summer/fall? It's my understanding, and observation, that the flower is formed in the bulb and comes up with the leaves or shortly after the leaves, so added stress could cause the bulb to grow leaves instead of flowers so that the next season could be all about growing instead of "wasting" energy on the flower(s). The last is just a guess on my part.

Maybe they have to be fertilized really well? I noticed my neighbor also had some come up, but no blooms. She is just not able to take care of stuff like this anymore.

If you want a rule of thumb rather than a list think this way: tiny flowering types tend to come back more easily. Of those with larger flowers think like this: short "trumpet" returns more easily. Ice follies is a larger flower but a shorter "trumpet" So is barret Browning. My favorites are the old ones and they have multiplied like crazy. I'll give you a link

Here is a link that might be useful: Tazetta

That makes sense. All my tete-a-tetes came back and bloomed again. And some kind of jonquil did too. I'm just not sure about the King Alfreds...the ones in the back did not get fertilized this year and they didn't bloom. I added new bulbs in the front and fertilized them all and got lots of blooms there.

there is a jonquil called quail that I like too. I have a neighbor with gorgeous prolific big trumpet daffs that may be the old King Alfreds. They don't know and the original owner before them didn't remember...believe me I asked!

Apparantly the KA's of today are not the same. I've read that literally they are not the same. I know that I've tried them from an online vender that I trust and from Sam's club. Got a few back and then none. But these tazettas are like sparrows in the hedge: more and more keep coming back.

Re no flowers just foliage. It's really important to allow the foliage to take in nutrients from the sun after the blooms are spent. It looks awful to some folks. I like to say to keep it around as long as you can stand it and at least for a month in a sunny spring.

c

I've just read this thread as I was looking for something. (Can't remember what I was looking for now.) But I thought this was very interesting, cynthianovak: the KA's of today are not the same.

I remember growing up with King Afreds flowering under the Silver Birches outside my bedroom window, with white lilac and Spiraea too, and when the road was wet, the scene was beautiful. (I suppose the road set off the white and black trunks of the birches). In any case, I have loved King Alfred daffodils ever since and when I finally bought some, was a little disappointed. They are not the way that I remembered.

Can anyone (say, Cynthia) shed any more light on what happened to KA? And who should be put to death?

Last spring Lowe's had deep pots of tete-a-tetes, at least 4 bulbs to a pot, in the garbage shelves for IIRC 1 or 2 bucks each after they had bloomed out. I cleaned up & planted a bunch in the cemetery & a bunch here--they're looking good, just getting ready to bloom.

I am about 40 miles east of Dallas and have thousands of wild jonquils that I got from along the roadside in Elkhart 10 years ago from a single small clump. I also have many domesticated varieties some of which took good and keep coming back and others that did not. I always NOW buy wild varieties and wild tulip varieties which will come back year after year and I have great luck with them. Here's where I buy my bulbs in the fall for late October shipment to me. http://www.colorblends.com   Great professional and helpful staff and I would not think of buying antwhere else especially when for the price I get top size bulbs in quantity. Check them out. Hope this helps!

I'm really confused with this repeat blooming business - or, more specifically, a failure of some bulbs to increase.

A woman I know bought, about five years ago, a set number of daffodils. Let's say it was five. She planted them in her garden which has yummy soil, in sun, and five years later she still only has five of those daffodils.

She asked me how can this be. Or maybe I asked her how can this be. Anyhow, we were both scratching our heads.

She had a theory - born of something that someone told her - that certain daffodil hybrids don't multiply. I can't fathom this as, if they can't multiply, then how do the breeders of these hybrids breed them? (I said to her.) Then I said, "From seed," before realising that this still didn't make sense.

I mean, if you breed something from seed then you have to let it multiply a s e x ually. (Just dividing up that word in case the site can't cope.)

Can anyone shed light on this? Perhaps I need to post this in another forum. Like the propagation one. Might do that.

This is why I never ever buy hybrids, especially when it comes to vegetable plants and seed. I personally prefer types that grow true to form naturally.