Readers will know of my love of Tulips which I persevere with, although they do not seem to last long in our garden. Each autumn I plant drifts of all colours and their fleshy leaves appear the following spring, unfurling to reveal the green buds that slowly change color to satin-like petals. The first year’s show is always good, but by the second spring, only a few bulbs remain, flagged by pathetic looking leaves and weak, if any flowers. Many gardeners who I speak with have the same problem and none of us are sure of the solution! So my local garden center does well each autumn as I replenish my borders with ‘annual’ Tulips!
Daffodils, on the other hand are so easy to grow, flowering reliably each spring and slowly spreading to make larger clumps. Many of ours have been in for several years now and still flower well. The low growing, white variety ‘Thalia’ is stunning in the green and white borders through late March and April, with scented, multi headed flowers and ‘Rinjveld’s Early Sensation’ is a joy in mid December and right through January into February. Mrs McGregor is very fond of the white and yellow variety ‘Iced Follies’ which is beginning to flower now but I have noticed that some of the clumps that got shaded out last year have not done so well. I will lift them as the leaves begin to die back and divide the bulbs to rejuvenate the clumps. Lack of flowers in Daffodils is known as ‘blindness’ and can be caused by congested clumps, dry soil or too much shade amongst other things. However, plants like to bend rules and I have seen clumps of daffs flowering reliably each spring in the most unlikely of places!
The Daffodil season is a long one if varieties are chosen carefully. After Christmas in our garden, we still have the yellow trumpets of ‘Rinjveld’s’ followed by ‘Martinette’ in February and March. This variety has multi headed flowers of bright yellow with an orange center and a delicious sweet scent – ideal for picking! ‘Thalia’ follow, along with ‘Iced Follies’ and ‘Red Devon’, amongst others. Last to flower are the Poet’s Narcissus (N. poeticus) or ‘Pheasant Eye’. With their rounded, pure white petals that open flat and small orangey red centres, they are some of my favourites and also have a sweet scent! I still have some gaps in the garden that need spring colour, so I have plenty of time to research some new varieties before buying them from the garden center in the autumn!