A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Transplanting Daffodils....

I knew they were there, but they did not sprout last spring. Now my daffodils are coming up and I was wondering if I can dig them and take them to my new house next month when I move?? Any suggestions on how to do this without losing the plants altogether??

I did read in the "tutorial" about them that you typically need to dig them after the plant itself had died down, but I am not going to have this option..... I am not too worried about losing this years flowers as long as they will return next year.....

So go ahead & dig them up before you move & either put them in pots or get them into the ground again ASAP. Any time you move a plant that is already coming up, if you get a lot of soil in each shovel full (so as not to disturb the bulbs) they might not even know they've been moved.

I don't know where you're moving to, but if you're moving them to a climate where it might still freeze, you may want to pot them up & keep them out of the frost, since they've already started sprouting.

Daffs are pretty hardy & can take a lot of cold weather, but I'm always afraid that when the tulips & daffodils start up this early, they'll get bitten & we won't see them at all in the spring! (I live in an area where the ground doesn't freeze below the surface, so we don't have to dig up ANY of our bulbs!)

Thanks Patty! I am only moving about a half hour away, so they should be fine, I just know that some things "shock" very badly and don't want to lose them from that. Any idea how deep they should be planted? I should've paid a bit more attention during my glance at the tutorial, I guess

The reason I will have to move them when we move is that we rent here and I can't come into someone else's yard and start digging I will be outside digging tomorrow!

Tonya, since they're already breaking ground, replant them so the soil level is the same. If you get them up by the shovel full & don't disturb them, the one's that haven't poked through yet should end up at the same depth that they are now, after you've moved them.

Otherwise, as a rule of thumb, I plant most bulbs the same as I do seeds... twice the depth of the bulb/seed itself. That doesn't apply to all plants, such as Iris (which are rhizomes anyway, & not bulbs).

Thank you sooooo much Patty!! Technically- these belong to the former tennants here, but

Hey, as long as you were the one who kept them alive (or at least they didn't die under your care), I think that makes them YOURS!

Good luck with your move... looking forward to seeing the pics WHEN they bloom! (Never say "if")

patty gave good advice, that works, so i'm not adding a thing.

One of the little 4 inch sprouts has a bloom pod on it, so it won't be too terribly long before I get a pic! YAY!! I can't wait to see some color outside again! My camelia is also about to bloom I will definitely get a pic of that also!

i thought daffodils were one of the few plants you could dig up and plant wile still in bloom,


cant wait to see your daffodil pis and your new house Tonya!

I have 2 clumps that I moved last year....one clump has BUDS one clump has BLOOMS.My others are still pushing up foliage.

I've moved daffs in all stages.before bud,barely broke ground,blooming& after bloom.They all seemed to do pretty well.
Good Luck!