Why do some shoots have no flower at the tip?

Blindness is a specific and slightly odd symptom: the plant is growing well, the shoot is healthy, and the flower simply is not there. It has separate causes on roses and on bulbs, and the responses have almost nothing in common.

Step by step

1. Confirm the shoot is genuinely blind.It has grown to full length, it is healthy and green, and it terminates in a small leafy point or a slight dieback rather than a bud. That is different from a bud that formed and then aborted, which leaves a dried, blackened or dropped bud behind.
2. On roses, treat it as normal and prune it.A proportion of blind shoots is ordinary on any rose, often after a cold spell damaged the tiny developing bud, and it is not a fault or a disease. Cut the shoot back by about a half to a third, to a strong outward-facing bud, and it will usually produce a flowering shoot from there within weeks.
3. Look at the rose's light and feeding.Widespread blindness across a whole plant points at shade, at too much nitrogen producing soft leafy growth, or at a plant recovering from hard pruning. A high-potash feed and more light both reduce it.
4. On daffodils and other bulbs, understand what blindness means.Leaves come up and no flower follows. The bulb has not stored enough to build a flower, which is decided in the previous summer. Once the leaves are up, this year is already settled — what you do now affects next year.
5. Check whether the bulbs are congested.A clump that flowered well for years and then stopped is usually overcrowded, with many small bulbs competing. Lift, divide and replant at proper depth after the foliage has died down, and expect the flowering to return in a year or two.
6. Check the planting depth.Bulbs planted too shallowly split into many small bulbs instead of building one large one, and small bulbs do not flower. Two to three times the bulb's own height of soil above it is the rule for most.
7. Stop cutting or tying the leaves.The single most common cause of blind daffodils in gardens and lawns. The leaves feed next year's flower and must be left for at least six weeks after flowering, untied and uncut. Mow around them or plant them where a late first cut is acceptable.
8. Deadhead the flower and feed after flowering.Removing the developing seedhead stops the bulb spending resources on seed, and a high-potash feed while the leaves are still green builds the bulb. That combination fixes most blind daffodil clumps within two seasons.
9. Check for shade and competition.Bulbs naturalised under a tree or shrub that has grown over the years gradually stop flowering because they no longer get light in spring. Move them rather than feeding them.

Tips

• Tulips are the most likely of all bulbs to be blind in their second year — most modern garden tulips are treated as annuals for good reason, and species tulips are the ones that return reliably.
• Blindness on roses is worst in a cold spring and largely disappears in a mild one. It is a weather effect as much as anything.
• Large-flowered daffodil varieties are the worst offenders for going blind. Smaller and species types naturalise far more reliably.
• Narcissus bulb fly is a possibility where a clump declines steadily rather than crowding up — lift a bulb and look for a soft, hollow centre with a single fat grub in it.

Common mistakes

• Tying daffodil leaves in knots after flowering — It halves the leaf area exposed to light in the six weeks that build next year's flower. This is the classic cause of a blind clump.
• Cutting a blind rose shoot right out at the base — It is a perfectly good shoot. Shortening it produces flowers; removing it removes the flowers it would have made.
• Feeding bulbs in autumn to fix blindness — Next year's flower was built in the previous early summer. Feed while the leaves are green, not when they are gone.

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