I still can’t answer my own question; why was there such a puny bloom crop on my daffodils this year?

Quite a few other folks have told me theirs didn’t bloom worth a darn either.

That makes me feel better, knowing it wasn’t something I personally messed up.

Google wasn’t helpful on this one.

Every narcissus guru’s site begins with the same likely cause for weak blooming; the leaves were not allowed to stay long enough before being mowed down the previous year.

Duh, I think most all of us know that and we do wait until the leaves begin to yellow before cutting them.

Reason 2 on many digital daffodil documents is the bulbs were planted too late.

Again, not the right answer this year when daffodils that have been where they are for years went bloomless or nearly so.

Ditto for Reason 3, which is the bulbs are too crowded and need dividing.

Not every clump of bulbs in so many bloomless yards became overcrowded the same year.

I did notice the old-timey “ditchbank” jonquils put on their small, unglamorous blooms okay.

But the King Alfreds and other named, modern daffodils more or less sat out the 2016 bloom period, at least on my place and some others.

I’ve acknowledged that I’m not sure what caused the daffodil dilemma. If I knew for sure, I would certainly pass it on.

OK, I’m going to speculate as to the reason for weak blooming of daffodils this year. I’m guessing it is the same cause as for a lot of plant mishaps we can’t explain.

Past weather is the only thing I can come up with. I’m not claiming it was the mild winter or a wet spell or dry spell during any particular time. But perennial plants are alive all year, year to year and they are acclimated and accustomed to the “normal” weather where they grow.

Plants do have a lot of tolerance for unfavorable weather conditions. That’s why they don’t die easily.

Survival is the only thing more important to a plant than its instinct to replicate itself, to reproduce.

So when anything goes wrong, be it weather or another stress, plants temporarily abandon the reproductive phase.

That’s why tomato plants drop blooms when it gets too hot and cotton sheds bloom buds when it stays too cloudy too long.

Those are obvious examples and they occur during the causal weather. But past weather can also result in the reproductive cycle of a plant being interrupted before it becomes visible.

Think of oak trees and their annual acorn crop. Some years there are a lot more acorns than in other years. Weather for a year or longer is the main factor in the number of acorns produced.

The same goes for pecans, magnolia blossoms, dogwood blooms and on and on. Something weather-wise since last year’s daffodil blooms caused the same plants to “think” survival and skimp on this year’s blooms. That’s my guess.

Terry Rector is a spokesman for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District.