Early blooming daffodils an withstand cold temperatures. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
No doubt, warmer that normal winter temperatures have teased some daffodils and tulips out of the ground a little early.
Fortunately, we don’t have to worry.
Spring bulbs are programmed by nature to handle most temperature fluctuations. Tulip and daffodil varieties are early, mid-season or late-season bloomers. The earliest ones out of the ground usually are the early blooming bulbs and they tend to be the most cold tolerant.
A severe snap of cold may damage the flowers on early blooming tulips and daffodils, possibly reducing the show. But the bulbs will survive to bloom again next year.
Cold temperatures may nip the leaves of later blooming bulbs that are above ground, but the flower buds are still tucked down in the plant and protected somewhat from freezes.
Gardeners may be tempted to mulch the bulbs that have broken ground. That’s unnecessary. In fact, the freshly added mulch may actually encourage the bulbs to grow more and bloom even earlier.
Remember. Don’t worry.
You Can Grow That! debuts this month. It is the brainchild of C.L. Fornari at Whole Life Gardening. You can also find postings on YCGT’s Facebook page. The goal is to instill confidence in gardeners to try new plants or grow familiar ones with success. You Can Grow That! will appear the 4th of every month.
Here on Cape Cod I’ve had many folks asking me about this as well. People have been happy to have such a mild winter but are concerned about what it might be doing to the plants. I wrote about this recently as well. You can Read it here if you want. The one thing I am concerned about however is the insect population this spring. We never had a real cold spell to keep there numbers down and so I am afraid of how bad they will be. I guess we’ll we see.
It has been a weird year all over the country weather-wise. This is comforting information even for the desert and chaparral gardeners since our bulbs are blooming extra early too. Thanks for the wisdom!