I should add that daffs are still flowering in my zone (7b VA) but I do not see buds on these yet. They might come up later in the spring, then just die off, if it is like last year. My question is based off on past few years.

Daffodils for me are bullet proof. When I have dug them and left them on top of the ground, in the spring I find them in bloom. I have never mulched them. Can't help but notice your very heavy wood chip mulch. I wonder if your wood chips are depleting your soil of nutrients, starving your daffodils? You have not mentioned where you are, or what your native soil is like. Al

Al - I am in VA (7b). Soil is clay/normal in this particular bed. Daffs seem to do so well for everyone else. I wonder if I should just pull them out and plant new ones

Should I do some bulb food soon to see if it helps and go easy on the mulch? Divide and replant them first?

Is the top picture of the bloomers' foliage? It looks healthy.

5 feet away ? they are doing fine? I'm wondering about the soil in the 'poor' location. If something had contaminated it in the past. Did you dig something into the soil there? Had there been a tree that depleted the soil? Are they all planted at the same depth? New bulbs in the that area may do the same thing. When I get empty paper buds it's because of not enuf water.

Irisgal - top picture with many in a row is a picture of my non-bloomers that produce empty buds. Foliage looks healthy right? So confused. Bloomers are right within 5ft I would say but across from a concrete walkway...

There is a maple about 25ft away from here I want to say. In this same bed I have yet small dee rink boxwood, sea thrifts, and small blue spruce. Some bulbs I dug up from here i planted elsewhere but they still didn't bloom. Some bulbs were pretty little. At that point it was my first time seeing daff bulbs so I didn't think much.

Do you think it's possible they have been too crowded in the same location for too long, and have divided but no space for them to grow?

You could dig up a few and see how big they are. I should do that myself! Mine bloomed for years but not this year. Mine are either too crowded, or they didn't get enough chill this year - we had an exceptionally warm winter in Southern California.

My guess is that they had grown and divided underground (not by an individual) so many times that the bulbs were really small. It can take a small bulb quite some time to grow big enough to produce a bloom.

Has the foliage been left in place until it falls over and turns brown? If the foliage has been removed prematurely, there will likely be no bloom the following year.

From
your pictures, the foliage looks like they are small bulbs and are
crowded. A clump of daffodil bulbs is not dug and divided the same way
some perennials are. AI clump of small crowded bulbs should be broken down to
almost individual bulbs and then when planted, they should be spaced out
in the hole. That will give them room to grow and thus bloom.

There could be numerous reasons why your buds are empty.

Here is a good read...

What Is Daffodil Bud Blast: Reasons Why Daffodil Buds Don’t Open

here is another good read.

Non-Blooming Daffodils

There are numerous reasons why daffodils bloom.

Sue

Well I dug up some of my non-blooming daffodils this morning and the bulbs are definitely too small. Time to divide!

I would suggest giving them a couple more years (after you divide and let them grow a year or two). However, I do want to throw in, that some strains just continously bud blast for me, so that's a thought to consider as well.

I've argued with other people in the past, who don't realize how much impact mowing early or other bad treatment can have on the bulb for years to come, so it may take several years for a full recovery under good conditions.
On the flip side, if you don't care to possibly invest that much effort and time, and can afford replacement, that may be easier. I have a hard time just throwing away a plant until it proves unsatifactory to me after many years.

You say 25' from a maple? Are these getting enough light and water where they are to actually grow to blooming size? Maples are hungry, thirsty, shaders of many other types of plants, especially big or full sized maple trees. My folks lost a complete garden to competition from a single silver maple. As it grew everything in the garden became less and less robust.

If you have the space dig them after the foliage yellows out, and set them out early next fall in full sun, if at all possible, divided to single or double noses set about 6" apart and about that deep. Be sure to work in bone meal or bulb food into the planting hole, but you need not overdo it for narcissi. Try a small group first. If that does not help in a year or two, discard these and replace them with something else. Make sure you plant them deep enough and spread them out rather than crowd them.

My tulips when planted too shallow, multiply into clumps of small bulbs many of which do not bloom. I then have to plant them deeper in a sort of nursery bed to get blooming size. That takes an extra year or more.

Also be aware that wood chip mulch can rob the soil of nitrogen as it decays. One of the first things to disappear when the fertilization is out of whack is the flower.

Thanks everyone. I will dig some up later this week and post pictures. Their foliage have always been allowed to brown for past 3 years. First I thought that was the issue but I don't think so. There are a lot of daffodils in my neighborhood and they do well, so I know it is mine in particular that have issues. Not region.

I will come back with the pictures of the bulbs soon.

Olddutch - I never thought about Maple being a factor here. My maple is old/large... I don't have a lot of perennials in this particular bed, and sea thrifts I have there have been doing fine, but I remember planting them we hit some roots. I also have a dee runk boxwood here and dwarf blue spruce which are doing well.

So I dug a little non-flowering clump today and here is the picture. Refer to the gardening glove on the left for the size. They seem too small to me to flower? Also all these bulbs were in 8 in clump so definitely crowded.

I am thinking once leaves grown, I will dig them up, separate and plant spaced out and some bulb food in the fall and let them grow a few more years?

What do you think?

Daffodils usually continue to flower long after the houses that they were planted can no longer even be found. It wouldn't be a normal situation for them to be that crowded...but I couldn't see your idea would hurt.

WOW!! That's a lot of little bulbs. They most definitely are crowded. And they weren't very deep either. It will not hurt to feed them this spring; extra nitrogen is probably called for, since your wood chips will be pulling that out of the top soil as they rot.

Were they mine (and I am in Minneapolis; so adjust you climate time table accordingly), I would feed them this spring, dig them with foliage attached as it yellows and do not divide them, but cure them under cover and well ventilated until the foliage is completely dried off. Store them in paper bags, divide and plant them back into nursery beds about 6" apart and about that deep next August (can be later farther south, but must be well before tulips or garlics need to be planted).

You will have something like enough bulbs to plant an entire city block by the looks of it; so only put back the largest of each clump into your nursery bed, which needs to be very carefully and specially prepared to feed the undersized bulbs well over the next year. You should end up with some flowers, perhaps of several types (which is why you try to find the larger bulbs from each clump and only divide them down to single or double noses at planting time; so you have a chance to maintain the variety) and much larger bulbs to replant into more permanent settings the following August.

You will have a whole lot of little extras to give away or throw away.

One more thing check for hardpan under the bulbs. Narcissi should have dug themselves in deeper than what those were at.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention they seemed shallow too. They were definitely not planted 6" I want to say more like 4".

Dbarron - weird right? I wonder if they were planted shallow and just left there for a long time. Previous owners did not garden at all I could tell. There were no perennials at all in the garden when we moved. Just some shrubs and some if them were very interesting choices.

Old Dutch - do you mean replant this august or cure through this year and next and plant next August? Are they good to be stores in the garage or shed till planting?

I'd forget the storage...it's not necessary, the natural state of the bulb of course is to be in the ground.
It's only done because a) it can be and b) convenient for the growers

The natural state of summer dormant bulbs is dry. IMO that is best managed when stored properly, but that is probably not so much of an issue in this case. Here it would provide more time carefully to prep the beds; so would be a matter of convenience, which is why I dig my tulips and store them every year once they are done blooming. Narcissi in general are not so fussy about summer moisture, though. They also do require a longer growing period in the fall than tulips; so they (like crocus) should be planted earlier, generally well before the first hard frosts.

If you talk to anyone at Brent & Becky's they will tell you one of the biggest issues with daffodils is that the clump gets too large or not enough sun when the foliage is ripening. Looking at your pic, I would bet the clump is too big. Certainly needs to be divided.

The first thing I noticed was your wood chips. And I wondered what your daffodils thought of them.

But back after I have read some more.

ETA: And I also thought, they are thick in places, but shouldn't they be at least flowering where they are not thick??? On the edges of those clumps???

E(again)TA: I definitely wouldn't dig them out and toss them away. I would start digging but only to have a look at what is going on.

ETA: Chemocurl makes a great point. Have you mown the foliage off each year?

ETA: Hmmm... unless you wear huge, enormous gloves, your daffodil bulbs are really quite small.

Could it be that they were very deeply planted? How deep do you estimate they were? Can that reduce flowering? I can't remember. I would do as OldDutch suggests but not the bit about throwing them away. I couldn't bring myself to do that, unless there was a sign of ill-health.

Another thing, I would try moving some right now, while I had the spade in my hand, and choose a lovely sunny spot. I think they would benefit from this even though they are in growth as I am quite sure they are complaining about being crowded. (I am a little puzzled though why they aren't flowering better on the edges.)

ETA: Lastly, I would not mulch them with woodchips, but that is just me. Each to their own and all that.

Another thing to remember is the foliage has to "ripen" which means it needs to turn yellow before it is mowed down even if the clump isn't flowering. All the experts I have read and talked to add that as being one of the top things to not do. Daffodils are not hard to grow and I would bet the answer for your nonflowering ones is very simple. One more thing, daffodils have the ability to pull the bulb down to its correct depth. That is another thing that daff experts will tell you.

If daffodil experts tell you that daffodil bulbs will pull themselves down into the soil, then I think they are getting confused with tulip experts and what they - the tulip experts - say about tulips.

James Hitchmough, in his book Garden Bulbs for Australia and New Zealand, writes: When lifting tulips you have to be thorough, as some types have contractile roots that, particularly in light soils, will pull the bulbs down below the depth at which you originally planted them.

It's not just tulips, lilies, crocus, and in fact a number of amaryllids also do this.

So do garlic and gladiolas. Potato onions don't, but walking onions do. I was surprised by the pictures at how shallow her narcissi were. I would have expected them to be much deeper. That is partly why I suggested checking for hardpan to see if something was obstructing their depth.

Admittedly I do better with tulips and planted too shallow they don't bloom so well and divide more into lots of smaller bulbs.

I think she needs to divide down to single or just double noses and plant to a more proper 6" or so depth with about 6" spacing between the bulbs after removing the wood chips and revitalizing the beds. That can be done this summer, as the foliage finally yellows out. If still no flowers next year, then I would say to replace the bulbs.

I doubt daffodil experts are confused.

No, maybe they're not...but people who post may be.

Anyone who loves daffodils should go to hear Brent Heath speak if they ever get the chance. He and his wife own Brent & Becky's and he hybridizes as well. He will answer a multitude of questions about proper care of daffs and other bulbs.

Thanks everyone!

My daffs have never been mowed while green. Well at least since they have been mine which is 2011. In fact, I always leave them extra long, until leaves are completely browned because I have suspected that might be the reason for no blooms.

When I dug them, these were very small. My gloves are ladies' size. And they were not deep at all. Probably around 4" or so from surface to the bottom of the bulbs.

I think my plan is let the foliage brown, dig them, remove wood chip mulch, re-work the bed, re-plant them with 6" spacing and 6" deep while providing some bulb food, and mulch with something else. And see how they do next year.

Question - I only mulched with wood chips because I am a newbie and don't know better. What should I mulch them with when I replant them after the browning of the leaves?

I'm a plant saver but in this case I'm going to say again that you might want to just move on. For the price of the fertilizer and mulch you're putting into these bulbs you can pick up a bag of new bulbs in the fall and have nearly guaranteed flowers next year. You've already divided and replanted once and should be getting flowers already, so you've already been down this road before. Even with excellent care these bulbs will likely need another year or two of good care before they bloom so don't think that transplanting and fertilizing this year will do much, they need to get another growing season in after the move.

You've gotten good advice on growing bulbs, but Some cultivars will spend the bulk of their energy multiplying, others will put most of their energy into flowering. You might have a multiplying type and even with a big investment in good care you'll still be back to overcrowded clumps in another few years.

But isn't that the beauty of gardening? Enjoying things when they flower (as well as the work involved, when you are young and spritely) and then having some to give to friends.

I think you have a good plan, traveller. And maybe your daffodils think so too.

As long as you're enjoying your daffs keep doing what you're doing but they shouldn't be a high maintenance plant. Also I've put wood mulch on mine and they do fine, no fertilizer, just compost when planting, so I don't think the mulch is a problem.

Try adding a few new ones this fall, I think you'll be very happy to have a few bloomers while you work things out with the other ones!