I had a problem with narcissus bulb fly for awhile. I put lawn fertilizer - yes, lawn fertilizer - on the infested clump and it bulked up quite nicely after that.

If you have bulb flies you will find maggots in the bulbs. Nitrogen is the nutrient most often deficient in local gardens. Bulbs need comparatively high nutrient levels do give a full performance.

Bulbs need comparatively high nutrient levels do give a full performance.

I'm not sure there is a strong consensus for this assessment. Naturalized clumps of daffodils return and bloom faithfully each year in unattended locations and abandoned farms and homesteads without any additional human intervention in the form of fertilization. It is certainly not supported by the American Daffodil Society, which only advocates "moderately fertile" soils. And high nitrogen fertilizer - like most lawn fertilzers - should be avoided as it promotes foliar growth at the expense of flowering and encourages the bulbs to split. Most bulb fertilizers contain quite low concentrations of nitrogen for this reason. Often, just a good organic mulch is sufficient to maintain soil nutrient levels for optimum narcissus performance.

There are various reasons why bulb plantings can dwindle and fade over time - a need for periodic division (3-5 years), removing foliage before it has time to ripen and dry fully, too much moisture during summer dormancy. Narcissus bulb fly is often the culprit too. If suspected, dig the affected bulbs and discard, as the adults will emerge in late spring and infest other, non-affected plantings. It is also recommended to remove the foliage as soon as it becomes brown and dry, as this removes the desired egg laying habitat. It is also suggested that a low growing groundcover be planted to grow amongst the bulbs, as the the adults prefer a bare soil situation to lay their eggs.

Here is a link that might be useful: bulb fly control

I agree that daffodils seem not to need too much fertilizer as I have many growing in containers that have bloomed several years in a row with no care whatsoever. The foliage is beautiful and the blooms are regular size.

Growth and bloom were much improved after the fertilization. Soils vary from one site to the next. Daffodils or other bulbs growing for years on a site would indicate it was fertile enough to make that possible. All plants have their own optimum ranges of light, moisture and fertility, outside of which they grow less well or even die. This is so consistent that which native plants are present can be used to evaluate the timber production potential of a plot. The term indicator plants has been used to refer to such plants being so used.

Fertilizer formulations based on an artificial idea of what particular plants will need - rather than what the likely situation is on many or most local sites - are easily found in stores. Local soils seldom require the amount of phosphorus and potassium included in many products.

I had the same issue with daffs disappearing. I planted around 300 daffs one year. Two years later there were 10 left. So they didn't dwindle away because they needed dividing, they got no water in summer, I didn't touch the foliage. These were semi-naturalized, untended daffs. And, they were in very lean soil - an old gravel pit site, very rocky/gravelly/sandy soil with no organic content to speak of. Many plants struggled in that soil. So I would go with bboy's diagnosis in this case.

And if kkaren is on similarly lean gravelly sandy soil, I'd give the high-nitrogen fertilizer a try.

I see lots of daffs returning year after year in places they obviously don't get any care in so I always wondered what happened to mine. Soils do vary greatly in fertility so that's one possibility to keep in mind.

Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers as they are
associated with bulb rot; also, avoid fresh
manures for the same reason. Fertilizing
options after planting include: 1) broadcast 0-
24-24 (N-P-K) at the rate of 1½ lbs/100 square
feet; or 2) broadcast 1 lb 8-24-24/100 square
feet. American Daffodil Society

Daffodils do not require heavy fertilization. Use a complete garden fertilizer with 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 parts nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Avoid applying large amounts of nitrogen. WSU Extension bulletin

A little more caution is needed in the use of fertilizer for daffodils than for many other flowering plants. This is because it has been found that available nitrogen intensifies the damage from basal rot, which is a very serious disease. Most gardeners use fertilizer rather freely because they want to encourage good plant growth. It is very likely that many daffodil bulbs have been lost from basal rot because of the excessive use of fertilizer. As yet no fertilizer experimental work has been done with daffodils at this Station. It is believed, however, that if there is a place for the use of bone meal in a garden, it should be used when fertilizing daffodils. It contains little nitrogen and what is present is in the organic form and slowly available to the plants. Bone meal contains no potash and the addition of potash may often be helpful. Well decomposed manure should also be beneficial. Commercial fertilizers that are low in nitrogen should be used if they can be obtained. If a fertilizer such as 8-8-8, which is not low in nitrogen, is used it should be applied at the rate of about 1 pound per 100 feet of row. Caution should be used in the application of fertilizer. It should be mixed well with the soil. When bulbs are left in place for two or more years it may be applied to the surface of the soil Dr. Jerry Parsons, TAMU professor and extension horticulturist

Daffodils do not require heavy fertilization. When preparing the beds, use 2 to 3 pounds of a complete garden fertilizer such as a 6-24-24 or other fertilizer with a 1:4:4 or 1:3:3 N-P-K ratio. Incorporate this fertilizer into 100 square feet of soil along with the sand and organic material. Packaged bulb food is convenient to use. When planting bulbs in clumps rather than beds, about a handful of fertilizer per 12 bulbs will be adequate. Be sure to mix the fertilizer thoroughly with the soil. Never place it directly in the bottom of the hole. A high fertilizer concentration can kill newly emerging roots and promote bulb rots. MSU extension service

Do the research. Virtually every source you will encounter will advise against using a high nitrogen fertilizer with daffodils or any other spring blooming bulb.

The dominant, persisting weed in the bed where my previously dwindling daffodils have made a good hearty clump is creeping buttercup - an indicator of soils with a substantial nitrogen component.

Local garden soils are often nitrogen deficient, providing enough nitrogen to produce optimal growth from specific kinds of plants won't necessarily make a soil high in nitrogen as far as the entire range of nitrogen occurrence goes. "Too much" nitrogen in this instance is defined by how much that kind of plant needs, what levels are too high for it.

Well I'm quite sure there is no nitrogen deficientcy in my soil. I have never gardened in sandy soil before but bone meal and humus was added ( well composted manure + leaf multch) So I did read on another forum that possibly the unusually warm fall and then hard frost for a week or so might have been bad for the hardening off of plants. Think I'll did up some spindly foliage of daffs and look for bug damage. I'll keep posted. thanks

I have noticed a lot of mine are declining in vigor. I never remove the foliage early. They may get too much water in summer though. I use hostas and daylilies to hide the foliage and they don't want it bone dry in summer....

Mine don't get a baking either. Apparently not a problem. Here on Camano another area where I have had narcissus for some years also happens to support a persisting, problematic growth of creeping buttercup.

Don't know what nutrient regime is involved with the growth of those conspicuous daffodil and tulip fields north of here, on the soil deposited by the Skagit River.

Bulbs in commercial growing fields are dug and harvested each season, then replanted in fall. The fields are planted in rotation and various other crops are grown during the summer season. Depending on the interim cropping, no doubt some sort of fertilization is going on but since these are grown as much for the cut flower trade as for the bulbs themselves, I'd be willing to put good money on the likelihood that it is a low nitrogen formulation - high nitrogen fertilizers just do not produce heavy flowering. The chapter regarding commercial bulb production in Narcissus and Daffodil: The Genus Narcissus by Gordon Hanks confirms this practice.

And too, the digging and replanting each season eliminates the crowding that can occur with various daffodil cultivars left in place for more than a couple of seasons and that also accounts for dwindling vigor. It is also important to remember that not all narcissus are created equal :-) Trumpet narcissus - the most common landscape variety - also called large-cupped daffodils, (and especially those with fancy doubled or split coronas or bi-colored flowers) look great for a year or two but will decrease their numbers, floral size, and vigor over time because their bulb size at harvest (and sale) is grown to larger-than-normal proportions. Species or the solid color trumpets (like 'King Alfred', 'Ice Follies', etc.) generally have greater ability to be long-lived and naturalize without attention. Heavy hybridization, as is much the same case with tulips, has reduced the ability of many cultivars to perennialize and return well season after season. Deadheading or removing spent flowers to limit seed production can also help to maintain vigor.

I gave mine one or two dustings of lawn fertilizer one year, not a routine lawn fertilization schedule.

The idea that nitrogen never has a role in flowering or fruiting of plants is a dogma. One year at a fruit meeting held at the Mount Vernon, WA station some Extension people from New York showed slides of barren apple trees at a site back there. Lack of fruiting was corrected in that instance by applying nitrogen.

The ones I am missing were planted within the last three years either from bulbs ordered from Brent & Becky's or from pots purchased locally. (many half price because they were done blooming)

'Katie Heath'
'Kaydee'
'Surfside'
'Jack Snipe' did well for years until I divided
'Hawera'
'Rosy Cloud'
'Quail'
'Barrett Browning'
'Toto'
are some of them not doing well or even coming up at all. I planted more than a dozen 4" pots of 'Kaydee' three years ago all over the garden and none of them thrived. I probably planted over 200 pots in the last three years, I went on a daffodil feeding frenzy but looking out the window, I can't tell. I bought them at Portland Nursery, Hardy Plant Society sale, Gardenpalooza, Shorty's Garden Center, Drake's 7 Dees etc. NOT Home Depot or any big box store because I wanted unusual cultivars.

My 'Jetstar', 'Ice Follies', 'Tete a Tete', 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'February Gold' are doing very well and increasing every year. Ditto Crocus and Hyacinths and species Tulips all bought at the same time. I've even got big tulips planted from gift pots received coming up and blooming every year, some yellow ones are ten years old but I should be seeing a sea of daffodils and narcissus out the window but I'm not......