Both go in the ground in October. Only one of them is still a show five springs later.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
In plain water the gap is not taste, it is arithmetic: tulips hold 7 days while daffodils (narcissus) manage 5 to 7. On price the two are interchangeable: the wholesale ranges overlap, so the choice is not a budget question.
In the garden
Both come back, but not everywhere: tulips shrug off zone 3 winters while daffodils (narcissus) tap out below zone 4. And if deer walk through, the choice makes itself: Rutgers rates daffodils (narcissus) A while tulips get eaten.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Tulips | Daffodils (Narcissus) |
|---|---|---|
| Vase life, days | 7 | 5 to 7 |
| Wholesale, per stem | $0.60 to $0.95 | $0.65 to $0.75 |
| Fragrance | Not fragrant (garden hybrids) | Fragrant; light in most garden trumpet types, sweet to intense in jonquil, tazetta and poeticus divisions |
| Light | Full sun | Full sun to part shade |
| Water | Medium | Medium moisture, needs good drainage |
| Hardiness zones | 3 to 8 | 4 to 8 |
| Bloom months | 2 months | 2 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Frequently severely damaged (Rutgers D) | Rarely damaged (Rutgers A) |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Toxic | Toxic |
| Out of water | Poor | not recorded |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit a job is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is named. Nothing here is sponsored, and no score can be bought. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.