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kendraschmidt_gw

Daffodils / Jonquil not facing my house

KendraSchmidt
11 years ago

Hello!

I have a quick question about Jonquil/Narcissus (Daffodil) bulbs that I placed in the ground a few months ago. My Jonquil has now grown, but my problem is that I planted the Jonquil on the right side of my house, along a border. The sun is also on the right side of my house. So when the Jonquil grew, it is facing my neighbor's house and I cannot even see the flower's "face". It's facing my neighbor's house because the sun is always just above her house.

Is there a way for me to make these flowers face me?? Lol And more importantly, is it now too late to transplant these flowers to another area of the property, so that I will be able to see the flowers next year when they bloom?

I planted them from bulbs, and I'm assuming it's now too late for me to uproot the plant and transplant it. Please any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Comments (5)

  • HU-17497
    11 years ago

    you can transplant them once the flower stem and leavs all turn yellow to brown and look like there going to die in the fall. sep-nov maybee depending on your zone.

  • brit5467
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    As for your "wanting them to face me" question -- I've got the same problem with leaning plants. Mine all want to lean way over toward city sidewalk (since my garden butts right up to it).

    I've never dealt with plants with hollow stems like daffys that I'd consider somewhat delicate. But depending on how full they are, like how tight together they are planted and you said in a boarder so I'm guessing in pretty much a straight line - you may try putting in a few indiscrete stakes down along the boarder and tying yarn along side them, against the side they are leaning to as to pull them in the opposite direction. Maybe every foot or so, to get enough 'tension'....if you can picture that.

    I bought a big ream of green yarn one year...don't even remember if it was for gardening or just from a fabric store. But it's lasted me ever since I started gardening in 2005 and I use it all the time to pull things this way or that....AS LONG AS the stems and/or foliage aren't so delicate that it would cut thru them.

    You have to consider how much wind you get and how hard they'd be pushed against it. Guess it would depend on how much tension you're putting on the stems. In fact, you could probably find something wider that was green (ribbon?) that would be less likely to cut thru them.

    Heck, by early summer, the whole northeast facing side of my house has green yarn tied to everything to pull it upright and then attached to the ugly black TV cable that some fool ran about 2 ft up from the ground along the side of the house.nBut in the long run, that cable serves a good purpose....lol.

    While doing "spring cleaning" I realized just how many plants I have to do that to, since I had to cut it all off the cable. It's some long-lasting stuff. In fact,being as frugile as I am, I often keep it the long pieces and reuse it, it weathers the winter that well.

    And then in the front, I take black plastic bags and cut into strips since it's wider and softer and tie it around all my thick stemmed oriental & asiatic lilies. And then tie yarn thru the loops of plastic so I can tie it to my porch. Otherwise, they want to lay dowm the ground reaching for the sun.

    Point is, typically I am doing taller, thicker stemmed plants like that as well as ginger & canna lilies.

    However, I also have some dwarf glads on the side (same height as daffys but with a bit tougher stem) that I use the yarn on and they do fine. But you'll need to consider how much wind they get. Mine never get enough wind to blow them hard against the yarn.

    You'll just have to use your own judgement as to whether or not you think they can handle something like that pulling against them.

    Also...this would probably be too tedious for your situation but I'll just throw it out there if it can help someone else.

    I have a nice clump of 3 groups paperwhites that were falling over so I took velcro ties (straps) that Dollar Tree sells for wrapping around computer cords and used the darker colored ones to bunch up a group of stems and wrap it around them. Very easy to adjust tightness and then I just slid it up or down until I got them how I wanted them...but not too tight so that air could get into the middle.

    Good Luck !!

  • KendraSchmidt
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks very much Brit! One of the Jonquil is now facing me, lol. I think I'm just going to plant them elsewhere, where they have no choice but to look at me, lol. This sounds so funny.

  • brit5467
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    No it doesn't !! I understand perfectly :-) It's like they're turning their backs on ya...lol

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Moving them to another location is the only solution. Like a number of other plants - most obviously sunflowers - narcissus (your daffs and jonquils) are governed by a biological phenomenon known as heliotropism or the movement of flowers to face the sun. In order to have the flowers face you, you have to site the bulbs so that the sun is behind you when you view them. Keep in mind that the sun travels during the course of the day but at narcissus blooming time, a mostly southern aspect should work best....just on the other side of the house :-)

    You can transplant the bulbs at any time after the flowers fade -- you don't have to wait until the foliage browns or dries or in fall. You can actually transplant the bulbs in full flower but it is a bit of a tricky process to do so without damaging the flower or interrupting the process.