To get the most from daffodils, follow these 4 basic rules:

1. Plant them where they will get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, even after they have finished flowering and the trees have leafed out. Daffodils need lots of sun after they bloom to produce next year’s flowers.
2. Plant them in soil that drains well. Avoid areas where water stands after a rainstorm.
3. Fertilize very lightly with a low-nitrogen fertilizer, preferably organic, just as the shoots emerge from the ground in early spring.
4. After daffodils flower, wait at least 8 weeks—until the leaves turn yellow — before cutting them. Never tie or braid daffodil foliage. This year’s leaves = next year’s flowers.

If you want to naturalize daffodils (i.e., plant them so that they look as though they had sprung up on their own), we suggest that you set them out in drifts (not in blocks or lines) and that you space the bulbs farther apart than recommended on the bag label (to allow room for the clumps to increase in size). If you want to naturalize daffodils in a grassy area, you must wait to mow until their foliage has turned yellow, which means allowing the grass to grow very tall.