Life in Pots

A goodly number of varieties in the collection are shorter plants hybridized growing in pots, either in the house or in the greenhouse/conservatory. By the turn of the 20th century, nurserymen were selling "fiber" for forcing bulbs indoors. Some preferred coconut husk fibers. Others produced a custom blend, such as James Veitch and Sons of London which sold a blend of moss fiber, shell and charcoal. Today, these short varieties can be grown out of doors in pots or soil bags, making it possible to bring them into a protected location during hard freezes in Zone 7.

Three daffodilians have kindly shared their methods for growing tazettas in containers. 

A grower in upstate South Carolina, Zone 7a/b,  has begun trialing tazettas in pots. The winter of 2024-2025, he planted 'Miss Linda' in a large terra cotta pot in his unconditioned (unheated and no air conditioning) solarium room. He started watering in September, never let the pot get bone dry, and stopped when the foliage started to turn yellow. My potting mix was a good commercial potting mix, cactus mix and perlite. Tazettas are heavy feeders, particularly the large ones, so an annual fertilizer regimen is definitely needed. My recommendation to him for fertilizer is a light dusting of wood ash, and 5-10-15 bag fertilizer.

A  grower in central Alabama, Zone 8a, uses a variety of pot types and chooses the pot size based on the size and number of bulbs. Though he tries to use pots nine inches or taller, he finds he gets the best overall results from growing in tall, narrow tree pots (which are about 5” wide and 12” tall), namely less rot and larger bulbs. However, some tazettas are too big to fit in those pots. He uses whatever general potting soil is on hand, usually one with peat, perlite, and sometimes pine bark, and adds wollastonite. He plants them about as deep as he would in the ground, depending on the size of the bulb. He tends to err on the side of under-fertilizing, using Miracle-Gro soluble fertilizer at half concentration. He applies when it’s cool and wet from rain, during active growth, maybe once or twice a month. For cold protection he huddles the pots together next to his raised bed and cover with frost cloth if it’s getting into the upper mid-20s. He has brought them all inside temporarily when it got into the teens. In summer he just leaves them outside. Some he huddles in shade and some he's left in full sun, but hasn't seen much difference. The yellow tazettas sometimes rot and he is more careful about drainage and keeping the bulbs dry in the summer. He tries to repot every year, especially with peat-based soils. Tazettas, especially, will get so big that their bulbs can deform pots after a single growing season. Those instances when he’s not repotted for two or three years the bulbs declined, split, or rotted. Though annual repotting is not very sustainable, it makes the bulbs grow vigorously and stay large. He’s currently experimenting with some inorganic potting mixes, which should theoretically last much longer. In pots he grows 'Astrid's Rose Water, 'Dainty Doll', 'Hattie's Delight', 'Icebox Pie' and 'Miss Lindsay'. [Note: wollastonite makes the soil pH more alkaline and adds trace nutrients.] 

A  grower in north-central Florida, Zone 9a-b, plants his bulbs in growbags, mostly in 10-gallon and secondarily 20-gallon sizes. He primarily use a mixture of ProMix and other organic potting mixes, and adds in organic granular fertilizer with a slighter higher P and K, like Plant-Tone. For established pots, he applies a water-soluble organic fertilizer at the beginning of the growing season. He freshens up the soil with worm castings annually, reusing the old potting mix left undisturbed. As he moves the growbags into shadier spots during summer, he doesn't overplant. He has used bio fungicides like RootShield when planting, and will re-apply this year. He did not cover the growbags last year, and they were fine as the temperatures did not get too low. For summer dormancy he leaves the bulbs in the growbags, simply relocating them under shelter where they are generally protected from rain.