The quick and easy way to dead-head daffodils

One of the heralds that spring is on its way are the daffodils and their cheerful chatter but once they have done their bit they do look a sorry lot and so it is time to get dead-heading. It may seem a bit daunting if you have hundreds of the little mites to deal with but there is a quick and easy way to dead-head daffodils and in no time at all you are helping them concentrate on the show for next year.

Should you dead-head daffodils or not – yes you should. Now I know that no one goes around dead-heading all those wild daffodils marauding across the woodlands and verges of the land however dead-heading is a way to ensure your daffs put the maximum amount of effort back into their bulbs for next year’s show. For those really interested in the why, see this post – Should you be dead-heading your daffodils?

For those already in the know… back to the quick way of dead-heading and it is really easy.

All you need to do is gently “pinch hold” the daffodil head just above where green stem joins the brown head and then snap the head back and hey presto!

With a bit of practice you can do it slightly differently and a bit more quickly. It is best demonstrated by the photo below – my index finger is at the join and you then bend the flower head back and it will snap off. Once you get the knack of it, you can easily have both hands going and all your daffodils are done in no time.

Just to add, this technique works most of the time but not always – particularly for smaller daffodils or those that have long faded but when it does it saves a lot of time messing around with snips or trying to pinch or wrench the dead heads off the stem.

Right, back to work!