Questions to be answered
Question 1: Across the bar (as I am being served with my weekly pint) – “When can I cut down my daffodils?”
Answer: You don’t, let them be. Leave them till they die down naturally
Supplementary comment: “But they are afa untidy lookin’. Can I tie them in knots or haud them in aboot wi’ an elastic band?”
Fuller explanation – before I die of thirst – and my last word on the matter is, remove the seed heads otherwise the plant will put all its energies into making good seed and unless you are a hybridiser you don’t need daffodil seeds.
Having taken the seed heads away, the plant will re-direct it’s energies through the leaves to build up the bulb thus ensuring a good show of flowers next year.
Removing the leaves prematurely or constricting their growth will defeat the purpose. Now, can I have that pint before it goes flat?
Question 2: Driving down the A96 through The Mearns – passenger says: “Why are they not cutting all these lovely daffodils, surely they could make a bob or two in the flower market?”
Answer: Unless there has been a recent dramatic change in their policies, these daffodil growers grow the crops to sell the bulbs, not the flowers.
Occasionally, when the price is right, they will indeed harvest the flowers for sale.
In other words, because our bulbs flower at a slightly later time than those in the south or if there is a shortage in the south the flowers may fetch a decent price that will leave a margin over picking and transport costs.
If there isn’t an advantage, the flowers may simply be mown off (to prevent them from producing seed as I explained earlier).
To continue with this one, we are all quite familiar with the ‘coals to Newcastle saying’, how about ‘daffodils to Holland’ then?
There is a very neat parallel with the Scottish seed potato industry – let me explain.
Potatoes are propagated vegetatively, you save smaller potatoes and sell the big ones for eating.
Next year you plant the little ones back and so on.
Eventually the stock is gradually weakened by a slow build up of disease.
Years ago the potato industry in Scotland split in two. Specialist growers would grow crops with the intention of selling the harvested potatoes to other farmers as ‘seed’ potatoes.
Farmer number two grows the seed tubers to produce the commercial ‘ware’ crop that you see in the greengrocer’s shelves.
The guys growing the seed crop will spend much of their time ensuring that the individual plants are kept free from viruses and insects (green fly) that transmit the viruses from plant to plant.
Most seed crops are grown isolated from areas where the ware crops are growing, to prevent re-infection of stocks.
The same story can be told about daffodils though they may spend two years in the ground before lifting and grading – the big ones being sold on and the wee ones planted back.
Before the seed potato crop can be offered for sale it will be subject to inspection by specially trained people and if the stringent conditions are met, these crops will be certified as substantially free from disease.
When you go to the garden centre to buy your seed tatties, you will note that they are carrying a Certified Seed label – well, they should be.
Returning again to the daffodils, I mentioned Holland, famous for it’s bulb crops – every now and then they and others must seek new, clean planting stock that is free from debilitating diseases and that brings us back to The Mearns farmers who do supply such stocks.
Question 3: I’m not finished yet, sitting in the garden centre café enjoying my coffee and cheese scone, I am accosted by a lady who says: “Just the very man, why have some of my daffies nae flo’ers?”
Answer. Maybe they are just having a year off; do you never feel like that?
Seriously, there are many reasons, one common problem is overcrowding.
Mark the culprits and once the foliage has died down, lift the clump, dry them off and replant in the autumn, giving the bulbs a bit of space.
My first outing
Going out in the third programme of the new Beechgrove series is my trip to see the good folks who have snapped up all the new allotments located within the Aden Country Park on the outskirts of Mintlaw.
We had a dry day for the visit but it was afa cal!
There is a significant range of allotmenteers from young to seniors and from experienced to rookies.
I will be returning later in the season to see what progress has been made. Look out for that interlude on April 17, 7.30pm, BBC2 (repeated April 19).