In my garden, amended clay soil, bulbs sort of move further down than the original 5-6” depth at which I plant them. I have used a spading fork to lift a grouping. I don’t pull the bulbs out completely, more like lift enough that I can easily pull the ones I wanna pull. Then I move the spading fork away and the remaining bulbs are lowered back in place. It is a pain. Doing that a couple of times sure teaches you to space them no closer than 6” so that I don’t find myself dividing/moving sooner than I have to.

HST, many people never bother to divide.

Heh, it's the 1st year in ground so who know how much of a hold it will be ...they are pretty dense. 3 inchs more or less..

I guess we'll see come spring whether they appease they eye or not.

Are daffies planted with other stuff in a garden bed, or planted in a spot by themselves, hoping to build a huge patch of them over time? If option 1, you will probably have to divide at some point but if option 2, you don’t really have to do anything if you don’t want to. The only reason to divide would be to speed up the spreading process. I probably wouldn’t bother.

Option 1, but it's more like if I don't like the look, I want to just pluck them out mid spring, while the stems are nice and taunt to the bulb *in theory*, allowing me a stronger grip to plug out the bulb from the soil...

Planted literally a month ago !

Heh, when bulbs take afoot, they really get a grip.

I remember taking out a bed of iris...the rhizomes literally make a weaved netted mound right on the surface. One did need some hacking to break out the weave of roots.....what was interesting was the soil underneath. Granted I never saw any pooled water, but it's as if the bulbulos layer+ tight meshed root did even allow anything to penetrate below

Let me disabuse you of the notion that you can pull a bulb out of the ground by its stem or foliage :-)) You can't!! All you will accomplish is tearing or breaking off that top growth (which the bulb needs for regeneration). Those roots will hold the bulb in place very firmly unless you very carefully loosen the surrounding soil to the point where the roots are no longer solidly anchored.

If a dense mass planting, that's going to be hard to do with any individual bulbs.

Heh. Always looking for the quick way out....if I did not like them, I was not planning to pull them out and repurpose them,

I guess we're going to do the whole shovel out, shovel back in routine if I decide to take them out.....

Zero chance of pulling them out - not least because narcissus have dropper roots which will pull themselves deeper into the soil. Just dig the entire clump with a decent trenching tool or fencing spade. The bulbs stay very compact (and can be safely ignored for years). Best done just after flowering, imo.

I mixed them in with other bulbs....so I guess I'll see how they look like in the spring....they were never really my fancy, but I planted some this fall and am having second thoughts. Looks like no shortcuts allowed ;-)

I second what gardengal48 said. Especially if you have dense soil those bulbs aren’t going anywhere without a shovel haha. I tried to do the same thing you are proposing by gently tugging on the stem, but every single stem snapped and I ended up having to dig anyways. What I learned was to think twice (even three or four times) about where I want to plant, and to amend my super dense clay soil with other materials. But lucky me, I forgot to amend the soil and didn’t realize til halfway through replanting haha. I do wish you luck though! Digging all my bulbs took about 2 days of working for about 4 hours each day, replanting took another 2 days for about 2 hours each day.

Heh. I'm second guessing a location where a put a dozen Globemasters as well...think about relocating them before the hard frost sets in. Heh, you are right. Think 3-4 times. Visualize. Think again. Confirm the vision of how it will look. Easier said then done.

Wow on time and labor. Is it due to the clay. Hammerdrill/midi SDS drill@ hand ?

I hardly ever plant or dig individual when planting. Big tarp, shovel, easy out/easy in. Well, it is smigen harder when you plan to dig out bulbs intact. I have to remind myself to put markers.....which I never do.

A1an, I only have a regular shovel. But I was trying to save my brand new mulch so I scraped it all off and re-poured it when done. Also because mine were just a blanket of flowers, I had no markers so I had to over turn every inch of garden and break apart clay soil to see if there were bulbs in it. He gardens in questions are about 8 ft wide and 20-25 feet long. I could have also been doing some other garden tasks as well but who knows, plus that time includes some small breaks haha.

Ehh. It's a labor of love, I suppose ;-)

Happy gardening Kali

If bulbs were planted a month ago, you could likely pull them off by them stem following a rainy day ( soft ground) as probably not enough roots attached to the ground. Longer than that: would need a spading fork.

How deep are the daffodil roots. Me thinks I might want to ~fork~ some out earlier. Even if I donate them - I'll probably just put them in a pot or something for now. Shall we say fork it 8 inches pass where I think how deep I planted the bulbs

In my ground daffodils would break off if pulled. I'm still not clear why you want to dig them up. To ascertain the depth excavate just one carefully and look at the roots.

I planted some small clusters between some boxwoods.I know I won't like them in it's placement.Rather dig them out out and disturb the boxwood roots now than later - giving the boxwood roots more time recover.

This post is for PR as i know she loves some daffodils. While after a long hard winter, it is sorta nice to see the daffodils in between the boxwoods. A splash of early color per-se between by balls of green mounds.

They're still coming out though, as soon as the blooms drop and I'll give the leaves a week of 2 after that. I'm sure they will perranilize and take over this space - in which that was not the goal.

are your boxwoods doing fine?..or not?..several neighbors and I are seeing a decline in our boxwoods..I read about blight and the info is discouraging..sorry to say this but you could end up removing the boxwoods..I've started removing some..there were 5 boxwoods planted in a curve behind these daffodils..took out 2..you can see 2 in the top of this pic that don't look as good as they used to..had 105 (counted once)..now 80?..will have less by the end of summer..more to come out..I would leave the daffodils..they're reliable, deer resistant, just so easy without any problems..but I get it if you don't like them..

heh. my boxwoods so far are fine. It's like the end of the world. Boxwood blight, rose rosette, downey mildew. The problem is if you have someone nearby that has BB, it just might linger over to you. Uggh, I feel your pain.

The Boxwoods are like my prized babies. I actually started growing them for 2 years before the current house was finished. I still have a couple in larger transplanted fabric pots

some of mine are fine too..I started planting boxwoods in 2005 when I moved here..they looked great for years and years..but I see ugliness now that never used to be there..I hope yours escape blight..I think it's in my neighborhood..

Glad you are enjoying the daffodils Alan! Dare I say they might grow on you yet? ;D