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Do daffodils kill other flowers?
Do daffodils kill other flowers?
A most robust discussion is taking place amongst us all here at Bloom College HQ. The topic is whether daffodils and jonquils should be allowed to inhabit the same bucket of water as freesias, tulips or other spring flowers when all are freshly picked.
We know the toxic sap from daffodils can produce a skin reaction (so gloves should be used when handling them), and we agree that heavily scented jonquils can affect some asthmatics and hay fever sufferers. We know daffodils are poisonous to eat (even rabbits won’t eat them).
Floristry websites and books about the care, conditioning and maintenance of cut flowers mostly tell us to set daffodils and jonquils aside in water by themselves for up to 24 hours after harvesting them and/or re-cutting their stems. The sap from cut daffodils can poison other flowers such as tulips, roses and freesias, they say.
Some here maintain they’ve never separated out daffodils and jonquils in a retail or industry setting and that ‘no freesias or tulips were harmed before the production of subsequent arrangements’.
Someone else argues that the poor tulips and freesias were perhaps spared only because the daffodils took some time to make it to the shop, and all the toxins were in the water they arrived in.
An unresolved question is whether the first and cruellest cut is the only time toxins are released, or whether further toxins are released by re-cutting.
As we have joyfully reached the period of spring when most of you will be tempted to pick or buy your own daffodils, jonquils, tulips and freesias, we’d like to put it out there for some field research, so to speak.
Can we engage your help to find out if mixing daffodils (inc jonquils) in the same water as freesias and/or tulips has a harmful effect on either the freesias or the tulips?
And does it make a difference if the daffodils are garden/field picked or purchased from a shop where they will surely have had their stems re-cut.
Of course you’re going to have to create control experiments in which you DO separate the daffodils for a day before you combine them into your mixed vase or arrangement, but that just gives you an excuse to have more gorgeous spring flowers around. We figure you won’t mind.
PS
According to official sources, daffodils don’t need flower food or preservative and freesias do, so if you add preservative to your flower mix, you may harm the daffodils … yet another sub experiment to conduct.
Please rescue your tulips or daffodils at the first sign of harm (and tell us how you revived them)!