Narcissus instead of daffodils?
We have all the bulbs at the nursery for half price. Another lousy bulb season, exasperated by poor decisions by the bulb company. For some odd reason they decided to re-label all the daffodils as narcissus. So we get in packages of daffodil bulbs and they come labeled as narcissus. No mention of the word daffodil on the package.
So what happens all bulb season? “Do you have Daffodils, I don’t want narcissus.” Each and every time they asked we would have to explain that narcissus was the botanical classification for daffodils. What a waste of time.
After all the discussions we and others in the trade have had about keeping it simple for the customer, and not over using the Latin names for plants, the bulb companies do the exact opposite. I cannot even imagine the reasoning behind this. As poor as bulb sales have been, and are likely to remain, changes like this can really eat into sales. Why couldn’t they just call them Daffodil “Ice Follies.” What was the reasoning behind changing the name from daffodil to narcissus? Yes, I know they are actually narcissus, but it’s not me they need to market to. Do my customers care that officially daffodils are narcissus? Of course not.
No wonder bulb companies are going out of business, and bulb sales continue to decline. Every year that we have to sell the bulbs at a discount is one year closer we get to not carrying bulbs at all. Well, we will always sell some daffodils since the deer don’t eat them. Now if I could only find some daffodils to sell. Narcissus for years has meant “Paperwhites” and other small flowering daffodils. That’s what the customer expects.
I understand your frustration. Customers don’t speak latin. They need it simple. Simple is as simple does. It works, why change it. If they are trying to appeal to the “bug hugging veggie head I speak Latin Master Gardener” in which there are 5 out there in our customer base, they are missing the target.
I don’t know what we need to do to improve the bulb situation. I did a bulb talk and that helped sales but I think I am going to have pre-orders for next year and give discounts to those that do buy earlier & quantity discounts as well.
We buy from a strictly wholesale company. They do not sell as a retail unit. No fancy packaging, no labels etc. So I had to come up with my own in order to sell their supremely better bulbs. (They actually own the Amsterdam Tulip Museum – if that means anything and I don’t think it really does?) So, we ended up planting another 600 or so bulbs here at the garden center. I can’t continue to do that. If I buy smaller quantities then I pay more. If I buy from another company I am almost guaranteed smaller bulbs and possibly rotten bulbs on arrival.
Lynne,
I have tried planting the left over bulbs in containers for spring sales. No one cares. Actually, planted Paperwhites, in bloom will sell during winter, but bulbs in containers in spring? No. In spring there seems to be so much else going so they don’t get noticed. Sure they make the garden center look cheerful, but that’s not the idea, is it?
We always plant the left over tulips in the 40 gallon pots that sit in front of the store. You can cram alomost a hundred bulbs in those pots. Store ‘em in an unheated greenhouse for the winter, then wheel them out in the spring when they start to sprout. Looks nice, but it’s a loss.
We didn’t bother with bulbs at all this fall. I do want some lilies, though, to pot up for next summer. That’s actually a good money-maker. The Tiger Lilies were a big hit this year.
The solution to the daffodil problem: either repackage them, or dump ‘em all loose in a box with a sign that says “Bulk Daffodils”. BTDT.
If you bother to do bulbs again… buy bulk only and label as you wish. And you can have your own local “branded” instructions to give out with them.
It seemed to work for us, though this was my first year bothering with bulbs… we are actually bringing another order of “pre-chilled” organic tulips to add to our winter mix. But in Berkeley and the Bay Area pre-chilling is required for tulips, so we will market that they are ready to plant and ready for spring blooms or forcing.
We cut back on bulb ordering, and had more people looking at them than ever! I pretty much buy only deer-resistant bulbs ( & market them that way) with 2 tulip types thrown in. We do pot up the leftovers for spring in 6″ pots and usually sellout most daffs, tulips and grape hyacinth for easter.
I actually love the idea of putting the correct latin name on everything– WITH the common name. People do learn over time–why not educate them? (What can I say, I’m a virgo–I need to know the real names of things)
I’m not a Virgo but like Jodie, it makes me happy to see that small type botanical name in addition to the larger, colorful common name.
It’s more serious for you, Trey, because it’s your livelihood, but many of us regular gardeners can relate to your frustration at having to explain the narcissus-daffodil thing over and over. Not that anyone believes us…for more fun, just throw the word ‘jonquil’ into the mix and see what happens!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Oh wow – I’m no pro, not even a Master Gardener, so maybe that was my problem when I tried to explain to a fellow shopper @ a local nursery that the daffodils she was seeking were one in the same as those bulbs labeled “narcissus”. She kept insisting she needed daffodils, not yellow narcissus. I said (more than once) that they are the same thing, look at the image on the box, not the name. She kept grumbling. Message – AND sale – lost.
Everyone can go out of business. Target is next. Their commercials are so bad.
Huh. I was just at the big box and I didn’t notice if they were called narcissus or not. But I wouldn’t notice-that name would seem natural to me, I guess. What I hear about bulbs from non-obsessive gardeners are 2 reasons:
deer
hybrid tulips not returning
And imagine when my “paperwhites” came in labeled as daffodills! Even the yellow “paperwhites” instead of being labeled “soleil d’or” they said daffodils!