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Frustrated gardeners have long forced bulbs into flowering early, tricking bulbs into thinking it was spring after a period of cold dormancy, or winter. Now that we have refrigerated trucks and interstate shipping and all the other conveniences of modern society, we also have forced bulbs available in supermarkets and chain stores all over the country. In particular, we often find tête-à-tête narcissus, in bud or blooming already, their cheery yellow flowers tempting us, quickening our heartbeats and lightening our steps.
It's February, or maybe March. It feels like spring will NEVER get here. For those of us holed up in the frozen North, we're really starting to get itchy. Our garden plans are waiting, carefully drawn in colored pencils. Our winter sowed containers are waiting, and our vegetable gardens are still vegetable seed packages, waiting. It feels as if the wholeworld is waiting, and we can't wait fast enough! Although the days are getting a little longer, they're still not long enough.
I can't manage the crowds at my local flower show, which is a big pick-me-up for lots (and lots and lots and lots) of people, and anyway, for me the first big event of spring is earlier and more mundane: the first forced bulbs in my grocery store. Sorely do they tempt me. Last year the house was blooming with my new-found addiction for amaryllis (or hippeastrum) in every room, and outside dozed 75+ winter sowed containers. Last year when those chirpy little golden creatures sang to me from the Florist Department, which I usually speed to avoid, I sang back "thanks anyway, guys, my house is alive with flowers."
This year, however, things are a lot less focused. I'm Supermom, not Putter-around-the-house-with-bulbs-mom. I'm buried in paperwork, not seeds . . . and when I heard the familiar call from the florist aisle, "we're ba-a-ack!" I'm afraid to say it, but I succumbed. I bought one pot of tête-à-têtes for my father, who lives at an assisted living center where they seem to have only artificial plants, and one for myself. It was supposed to be for the whole family, but none of us noticed whether it was getting watered or not, and eventually ... it wasn't! But that's okay, because tête-à-tête daffodils will naturalize in nearly any part of the country. So if this happens to you, oh ye of forgetful watering can, take heed!
Let the foliage on your tête-à-têtes ripen until the stems turn brown; they need to store all the energy they can, in the form of carbohydrates, if they are going to flower again another year. Then carefully dig out the bulbs and plant them in any sunny, well-drained spot where you want a touch of low-growing early spring color. Reports vary on whether forced tête-à-tête bulbs will flower the very next spring or skip a year. (Flowering out-of-sync with a bulb's natural rhythms taxes it heavily, and it may take a year to recover.) You can learn more at the Bulb Forum, and of course you can plant tête-à-têtes in the autumn like the rest of the world. But whatever you do, if you buy the potted type, don't throw them out!
Tête-à-tête means "head to head" in French, like a head to head talk, and often these miniature daffodils look as if they're having a close conference, with two or more blooms per stalk. They flower in early spring, and should spread happily in any zone with a discernible winter, say zone 8 and colder. They would do well with a little bulb fertilizer, if you happen to remember. Their perky bright yellow goes particularly well with grape hyacinth (muscari armeniacum) or blue creeping phlox (phlox subulata). Mine are planted with forget-me-nots (myosotis sylvatica), which sometimes forget that they're supposed to reseed prolifically.
I think these days at the big box stores, they actually get to sendback miniature roses that didn't open and daffodils that dried out. But if you have an opportunity to pick up a lot of these once-flowered beauties on the cheap, do it! I'm planning to stalk the halls of my father's assisted living center and see if any other dutiful daughters said it with daffodils this winter.
About Carrie Lamont
Carrie has two teenage daughters, which is exhausting all by itself. She has been married for seven delightful years to her husband, who works for an airline, facilitating Carrie's frequent need to travel. She is forever coming up with crazy and irreverent schemes and trying to get others to do it her way, but is learning to be humble as she ages. Carrie has a masters degree in Music, and sings as she gardens a small urban plot from her wheelchair.
Posted by Annepaola (from Manahawkin, NJ) on March 3, 2008 at 10:58 AM:
Daffodils are among my most favorites, and I have often in the past done the same as you recommend in your article. However, now, my lust for them has been assuaged by planting Rijnveld's Early Sensation daffs that will bloom in our zone 7 garden any time from Christmas to St.Patrick's day, but mostly in February. Lovely daff.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on March 3, 2008 at 11:19 AM:
Christmas to March??? I'll have to check this out...... where did you get them? Thanks, friend. xx, Carrie
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Subject: Well done
Posted by doccat5 (from Fredericksburg, VA) on February 18, 2008 at 1:51 AM:
Thank you carrie. I didn't realize this was one of the forcing varieties, so I shall add it to my list!! I dying to get my DGD over here to see the hyacinths she helped me "plant" for forcing, they are starting to throw shoots. Hopefully this weekend we can get together and that will be fun!
Thanks for sharing the information!
Daffodils always make me smile. They are just so cheery!
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 10:31 AM:
My, you're up early/late! Yes, but please notice I only give instructions on REplanting after someone else has forced them. (Smile.) I believe you'll have to wait until the fall for instructions on forcing your own bulbs, but then again, I could be wrong. I guess you'll have to wait and see! But yes, tete-a-tetes are the most commonly forced daffodil.
I went to my dad's nursing home yesterday and got his, but I didn't see any other ones, :>( I was really hoping to score!
x, Carrie
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Posted by doccat5 (from Fredericksburg, VA) on February 18, 2008 at 10:41 AM:
I have some regular daffodil-daffodils I'm forcing right now. I had half a bag tucked that I missed on the major outside plant, so I figured I'd try it. They seem to be doing quite well. And the giant hyacinths are coming on strong. I also have some of the small Japanese type iris potted, so far they aren't doing anything, so we'll see. Most of these were "left-overs" from the outside plantings and I was bored. What can I say? LOL
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 10:50 AM:
You go, girl!
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Posted by Seandor (from Springfield, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 8:09 PM:
Gee . . . when I think of the bulbs I have tossed in the past . . . . sigh . . . Thanks for enlightening me :-)
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 8:11 PM:
Aha! If I can save just one. . . . .
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Posted by Seandor (from Springfield, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 8:15 PM:
You see - there are daffodils that owe their lives to you, Carrie :-)
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on February 18, 2008 at 8:22 PM:
Not yet . . . .. after I get my father's planted, though! I keep hoping I'll find one of those 75% off sales that other people find, but I think in MA there night be consumer protection laws that mean HD gets to send back dead plants and so forth. Which is like sending back a prom dress after you've worn it, to me.
author's note: it is still far wiser to buy your tete-a-tete bulbs in the fall by the bushel and plant them then!/i>
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Posted by LarryR (from South Amana, IA) on February 19, 2008 at 12:46 AM:
Another interesting, well-written article, Carrie. There is a pot of tete-a-tetes blooming on our kitchen table as I write this. They're my variety of choice for forcing. Also have some hyacinths and crocus blooming in the hall. Mice got into four other pots of bulbs I was forcing and ate most of them. Rats! :-)
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on February 19, 2008 at 10:26 AM:
Er, MICE, Larry! Thank you, and don't forget to plant them after you force them!
x, Carrie
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Posted by LarryR (from South Amana, IA) on February 19, 2008 at 5:41 PM:
Thanks for catching my lame attempt at humor, Carrie :-) I promise to plant them!
They flower in early spring, and should spread happily in any zone with a discernible winter, say zone 8 and colder. They would do well with a little bulb fertilizer, if you happen to remember. Their perky bright
but I succumbed. I bought one pot of tête-à-têtes for my father, who lives at an assisted living center where they seem to have only artificial plants, and one for myself. It was supposed to be for the whole family, but none of us noticed whether it was getting watered or not, and eventually ... it wasn't! But that's okay, because 
