Is Daffodil deer resistant?

Contains lycorine, an alkaloid that is toxic to deer, rabbits, squirrels and voles alike. Nothing eats daffodils, which is why they are the standard answer when someone loses a hundred tulip bulbs overnight.

Plant them at roughly three times the height of the bulb, pointed end up, in fall while the soil is still workable. They want sun in spring, which means under deciduous trees is fine because they finish before the canopy closes.

The one rule that matters afterwards is leaving the foliage alone. It looks untidy for six weeks after flowering and every instinct says tidy it, but that is when the bulb is building next year's flower. Cut it green, or tie it in knots, and you get leaves and no blooms the following spring. Wait until it yellows and pulls away easily.

Do deer eat daffodils?

Rarely, and daffodils are as close to the exception as the encyclopedia holds. Rutgers rates Narcissus Rarely Damaged, A, and NC State: "They are deer, rabbit, and salt resistant." The reason is lycorine, a phenanthridine alkaloid through every part of the plant, with the bulb "the most poisonous part," and it stops rodents as well as deer, which is why a daffodil bed outlasts a tulip bed by decades.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 4a to 8b, 8 inches to 2 1/2 feet, full sun or partial shade, flowering late winter into spring, and tolerating drought and salt. Under deciduous trees is fine, because they are finished before the canopy closes. The ASPCA lists daffodils as toxic to cats, dogs and horses; NC State rates the severity Medium, adds contact dermatitis from handling the bulbs, "lily rash," and the callout below carries it.

Protecting daffodils

Nothing. This is the bulb the site recommends as the replacement for tulips, and the bulbs page makes the swap explicit.

If it is browsed

It is not, in the ordinary run. A daffodil that fails to flower has had its foliage cut green the year before, or has been shaded out, or is a clump that needs lifting and dividing; the deer are not the reason.