Mini daffodils can be such an early spring delight and make great container and basket plants, but what do you do with these little pops of color once they have finished flowering?

What To Do With Mini Daffodils After Flowering

Mini daffodils should be treated no differently than regular daffodils when it comes to their after-blooming care.

Deadhead Old Flowers

The first step you should be taking is regular deadheading and not allowing the production of seed heads. This is wasted energy that should instead be going to the bulb of the plants.

Reproduction through seed is very difficult and slow with daffodils, even mini ones, so rather than letting the plant waste energy on this, we want to focus all of its energy on further developing its bulb.

This can easily be done by deadheading all old flowers before they turn to seed.

Let The Leaves Flop

Now we have to just let the leaves flop around on the soil, yes they look unsightly but they are still taking in sunlight and storing that energy in the bulb.

This is vital for next year’s growth so we want to allow the leaves to soak up the sun.

Many people like to tie these dying leaves up into bunches to tidy them up a little bit. And while this will make the plants look better in the short term it is not good for their long-term growth.

This is because by tying the leaves up you are massively reducing the surface area of the leaves that will get sunlight. This means they will store less energy for next year and therefore not perform as well as they could.

Let the leaves sprawl on the floor, even if they don’t look good, as this will all help your daffodils look even better next spring.

Cut Back To The Ground

Once the leaves have started to yellow then you can cut them right back to the ground if you wish. This usually happens around May or early June.

The leaves will not be absorbing energy once they have yellowed so you can remove them.

What To Do With Mini Daffodils In Containers

If your mini daffodils are being grown in containers or hanging baskets then there are other steps you might want to take once your plants have finished flowering.

The main thing you will probably do is lift and store the bulbs once they have finished. This will allow you to use the pot or hanging basket for something else whilst also protecting your mini daffodils.

Follow the steps above and let the foliage die off before thinking of lifting your bulbs.

Then, if possible, move the container to a dry spot like a shed or greenhouse and allow the soil to dry out. Only do this once the foliage has either completely died off or been cut back to the ground.

Then gently lift the bulbs from the soil, if any new bulbs are starting to form through division then you can break these off to form new plants.

Put the bulbs onto a tray or sheet of kitchen roll to aid them in drying off. After a couple of days of drying, I like to move my bulbs into a cardboard box full of newspaper and store them like this all summer before planting again in autumn.

Make sure the cardboard box stays dry and stays out of the sun!