The Mathematics of Bulbs

A daffodil bulb, planted, blooms and after the blooms wilt, the plant continues to create energy (and protein) from the leaves to make new bulbs underground.

Do not trim or mow the leaves. Leave the leaves intact and let them wilt.

You can mark the bulb’s spot with a thin short stake.

In the late fall, dig out the bulb and find three new bulbs have been produced. Where there was one bulb there now are four.

If you had planted a dozen bulbs, you now have 48. Call it 50.

Transplant the bulbs so that this fall you have fifty bulbs in the ground.

This time next year you will have 200 bulbs to plant, and the year after that, eight hundred bulbs. The next year three thousand two hundred.

Why aren’t we planting more daffodils?

Daffodils are a hardy plant, and often the first flowers in spring after a long winter. Plant them, and walk away; leave them alone; they defy dandelions for sunlight.

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