From our perspective as daffodil plants (genus Narcissus), the answer is a definitive yes, you can grow us from seed. However, this path to existence is a long and uncertain journey, vastly different from the quick and reliable method of growing from our bulbs. It is the method of patience, chance, and evolution.
Our primary method of spreading and multiplying is through our bulbs. Each year, a mother bulb produces smaller offset bulbs, which are genetic clones. This is efficient and ensures the survival of a successful genetic line. Seeds, on the other hand, serve a different, crucial purpose: genetic recombination. When an insect pollinates our flowers, pollen from one daffodil fertilizes the ovules of another. The resulting seeds contain a completely new combination of genes from both parent plants. This is how new colors, forms, and potentially better-adapted daffodil varieties arise in nature. For us as a species, it is the engine of evolution and adaptation to changing environments.
After successful pollination, our petals wither and fall away. The ovary at the base of the flower, which you might not even notice when the bright trumpet is showing, begins to swell. It develops into a three-partied capsule, green at first, then turning brown and papery as it matures over the summer. Inside this capsule, our seeds develop. Each seed is a small, black, round or slightly angular structure, often with a fatty appendage called an elaiosome. This appendage is a clever evolutionary trick; it attracts ants, which carry the seeds away to their nests, eat the elaiosome, and discard the intact seed, effectively planting it for us. This dispersal method helps us colonize new areas away from the parent plant.
This is where the immense patience required becomes clear. If a seed lands in a suitable spot with moist, well-drained soil and germinates, it does not produce a flower in its first year—or even its fifth. In the first growing season, the seed sends down a tiny root and produces a single, grass-like leaf. All the plant's energy is directed underground to form a minuscule bulb, perhaps the size of a grain of rice. This bulb must go through a period of cold dormancy in winter before it can grow again the following spring. Each year, the bulb grows slightly larger, and the leaves may increase in number. It typically takes a minimum of five to seven years, and sometimes even longer, for the bulb to store enough energy to finally send up a flower stalk and bloom. This entire time, the young plant is vulnerable to drought, competition from other plants, and being eaten.
From a horticultural perspective, growing daffodils from seed is a test of dedication. The long wait and variable results (the seedling will not be an exact copy of either parent) make it impractical for most gardeners seeking a specific, immediate display. This is why you, as humans, almost always plant our bulbs. You get a predictable flower in the first spring. However, for plant breeders, seed propagation is essential. They deliberately cross-pollinate specific daffodil varieties to create new hybrids, nurturing the seedlings for years until a truly unique and beautiful new daffodil is born, which will then be multiplied commercially by its bulbs. So, while growing from seed is our natural way of creating something new, growing from bulbs is the efficient way of preserving and sharing that creation.
