I think most pros don't use too much nitrogen because it tends to produce "soft" bulbs, I don't know if this is true or not but I do think it makes for floppy disease prone leaves. I feel like compost provides more than enough fertilizer for daffodils, but if you want to add one of the bulb fertilizers, that should help the young bulbs just as much as mature bulbs. Whatever you use make sure it's soluable enough to make it down through the soil to the roots in time for the plant to use it (for example bone meal won't help if you spread it on top of the soil right now, the roots are no where near it) Maybe Sue will have something to add, she has been known to plant a daffodil or two.

Hi, everyone. I haven't checked in in awhile as I have been planting pansies. Next week it's off to our annual VanZyverden bulb sale to stock up on tulips! This, of course, is an annual pilgrimage since they are pulled up and discarded after their bloom time in the spring. Yes, Lady, I do grow quite alot of bulbs, now that I think about it. Over the years, they have become pretty near the top of my favorites list. I have LOTS of daffodils and that population keeps growing every year between adding new varieties and dividing the clumps I have in the yard. I particularly like jonquils, so have lots of those. My second favorite would be zephyranthes (rain lilies) closely followed by crinums. In addition I love Dutch Iris, hyacinths, ipheion, camassia, byzantine glads, amaryllis, arum, spanish bluebells, leucojums, oxalis, eucomis, canna, crocosmia, lycoris, and oxblood lilies. I have tried numerous others over the years, but the ones that are listed are the ones that have persisted and multiplied for me. Well, not the hyacinths, but everything else. :) I hope your bulbs are a huge success for you. Daffodils were my very first bulbs to ever plant. I got my first ones from my beautician. I admired them, so she walked outside and dug up part of a clump for me. That was more than twenty years ago and I still have some of the progeny from that handfull of treasure she gave me. Nothing in my garden gives more pleasure for less effort than bulbs.

First, check that this is correct--stick your finger into the grass. Do you feel soil and does your finger come back dirty? You don't have that much thatch (but test this in a dozen locations). You can also spread the grass and look down into the thatch layer. Pull it out and look at the surrounding thatch to see how much is there. If the overall average is 1/4" or less, that's a healthy amount of thatch (and actually a good thing as it protects the crown of the grass from mechanical damage, plus mulches the soil a little bit). Some grasses--KBG and zoysia most notably--are incredibly thatchy, but most can suffer a thatch issue if the soil biology is off, watering is wrong (watering too often encourages thatch), or feeding is wrong (too much nitrogen at the wrong times). Normally, a healthy insect and pill bug (which are crustaceans) population will digest that and poo it out as food for the lawn. Bacteria and fungi also help, so those mushrooms people hate are actually a sign of a healthy and working biology. Enhancing the soil biology is very easy. Pick up Milorganite or any other organic fertilizer (I use soybean meal) and apply. Over time, the decaying material will increase populations across the board, and much of it will be very happy to eat your thatch as well. For extreme thatching, sometimes resetting the system by dethatching is the only reasonable option. In that case, you can rent a dethatcher at most machine rental shops and--sometimes--your local Big Box store. Set the tines to just miss the soil as you don't want to disturb that or destroy surface roots, and rake afterward to pick up the waste thatch (or mow with your bag on).

It's at the drip line of a 60-foot hemlock. I've got 30 or so hosta under that hemlock. All the rest are doing fine. Nance