When the willows are gardening and the rosy blush of maples sweeps over hills and swamps, daffodils bloom in equal glory in your garden. Of course, you must put them there, and if you have not already attended to it, now is the time to plant.
Even in a small garden, there is space for many varieties, but if you have acreage, what better use for it than to grow a host of daffodils? Good naturalizing mixtures of the sturdier sorts are not expensive, and anywhere a pick mattock can go—in well-drained soil—a daffodil can follow.
Long ago I saw a hillside golden with daffodils. I haven’t space for such a multitude, but at the edge of our small woods, I naturalize both “boughten” bulbs and the overflow from friends’ gardens. I disagree with the advice of landscapers to “plant an eyeful” of one kind and color, for I like variety in my daffodil plantings.
How else could I find room for all the sorts I want? The color variations are so subtle that different varieties can be beautifully combined without producing a spotty effect. I think daffodil plantings can be a little dull unless several varieties are used together.
Daffodils In Highlight Groupings
When daffodils are employed to highlight groupings of other flowers, it is a different matter. Just the right variety must be chosen. If you are as careless as I was to plant orange-cupped daffodils in front of a clump of Virginia bluebells, you will change the daffodils in a hurry, or at least as soon as the foliage dies down.
I substituted THALIA, a white triandrus hybrid, which is one of my favorites. It has a pointed, star-like perianth, slightly frilled cup, and three blooms to a stem. I have seen no other of comparable delicacy, crispness, and purity of form and color. I use it also with gold-centered white, deep-blue, and pale-yellow primulas.
I was content with the nameless old lovelies among daffodils until a friend gave me a mixture that I later discovered included such varieties as TREVITHIAN, BEERSHEBA, and MRS. R. G. BACKHOUSI. That was the beginning of my interest.
Once you look closely at daffodils, you discover the great differences between them and scan the specialists’ catalogs for delightful new ones to add to your plantings. My sometimes-broken rule is to buy only the twenty-five- to fifty-cent kinds and only two or three of each, for I want as many different kinds as I can get.
This temptation to try out new varieties may result in minor domestic troubles because as the garden overflows one needs help to carve an extra 12—well, at least 8” inches from the lawn. Such troubles are forgotten when the daffodils bloom!
I grouped the pink-cupped LADY BIRD, the white and cream GERTIE MILLAR, and the small light-sulfur W. P. MILNER—a pale trio, set off by the brilliant blue of the Siberian squill—and no one cared about lawn widths.
Early Daffodils Greatest Joy
The early daffodils, perhaps give us the greatest joy, for even though the form and substance of some of them are not quite so fine as that of some of the newer hybrids, they bloom before our Late snows come.
The first to bloom in my garden are REMBRANDT and KING ALFRED, both big golden trumpets; MULATTO, a fine sulfur-yellow trumpet, with a deeper-colored frill: MUSIC HALL and SPRING GLORY, striking bicolors with large flanged trumpets, and Mes. KREI.AGE, white with a cream trumpet.
These are closely followed by that excellent variety FORTUNE, lemon-yellow with a deep-orange cup, and Bo-DILLY. white with a wide lemon cup. It has everything—color, form, substance, carriage, vigor—a real treasure.
There is a big group of large-cupped bicolors, with wide heavy bowl- or plate-shaped cups that may be crinkled, pleated, frilled, or ruffled. Some are too flamboyant for my taste, but all are a good garden and cutting flowers.
For example, DUKE OF WINDSOR is a handsome “weatherproof” variety, with a pale-yellow cup; SELMA LAGERLOF is a showy flower with an interesting gold crown; MoNuouE, a more restrained flower, yellow-cupped and fragrant; EMERALD, with a frilly light- yellow cup, stands out in the garden; LEMON CUP is similar to EMERALD.
SCARLET LEADER is a most satisfactory large bold garden flower with a flat white perianth and a widely flaring cup which is more orange than red. It does not fade but becomes more yellow as the flower ages. It lasts a long time, even in the hottest April.
The only other red and white daffodils I have do fade. They are DICK WELLBAND, easy to grow, and handsome when it first opens, and LA RIANTE, charming with rounded perianth and flat red crown. Both of these have good garden value but are difficult to combine with other flowers.
Something Different
For something quite different from the above, try ANGELINE, which opens a rich white with a small off-white cup, changing to white, and edged with a narrow thread of gold embroidery. Some of its flowers are facing. It is my favorite of the new ones for this year. It is a “close-up” flower and should be wonderful for cutting.
MOONDANCE is similar but smaller—only 12-inch sterns—with a paler yellow border on the cup. MISTY MOON is very showy in its delicate way. It has a round white perianth with a grayish eye, edged with apricot. MARKET MERRY has a yellow perianth, with a slight apricot tinge developing after the flower has fully opened, and a deeper yellow cup.
It is different and lovely. POMONA is white with a pale-yellow small flat cup edged with yellow and apricot. CARNLOUGH is a shy bloomer for me but a great white beauty with a large. cream, narrow, trumpet-like cup, the frilled edge a pale apricot. CROCUS, with its trumpet-like large cup, is a fine deep yellow.
The best of my large cupped types may be POLINDRA, a tall, smooth, rapidly increasing white with a light-yellow cup. BIZERTA is similar, with an apricot tinge to its cup. RUBRA is an excellent long-lasting white. with a flaring medium-sized cup edged with orange.
PORTHILLY is a good yellow with a frilled orange cup, and so are IOLITE, a vigorous, handsome, medium-sized flower with a slightly darker rim to the cup, and CARBINEER, deep yellow with heavy substance and a wide orange border to the medium-sized cup.
While among the white daffodils THALIA is queen, I would not want him without MOUNT HOOD, which opens with a cream trumpet, changing to white, or the smaller, shorter BEERSHEBA, which has a lovely form and is pure white. It is tops in its price class. TRUTH is said to have faultless form and perfect whiteness but it did not bloom for me last spring, its first season in my garden.
I have seen no truly pink daffodils, but of the inexpensive “pink” varieties I find ROSE OF TRALEE most lovely. It has a large nicely formed flower with a good carriage, and the trumpet-like crown is a rosy apricot.
LADY BIRD mentioned earlier, is deep apricot pink inside the cup and makes a fine garden flower. I grow it in part shade. which may explain its deep color. The old MRS. R. O. BACK-DOUSE has a pinkish-buff effect in full sun.
Here are some newer varieties which I have seen and placed on my “must have” list.
BINKIE—pale sulfur-yellow with a slight green cast, perfect form, and substance, medium size. Cup slightly deeper in tone when opening, fades to nearly white inside, giving a handsome effect. GREEN ISLAND—beautiful form.
Perianth thick white. Slightly irregular yellow medium cup, edged green-gold. GALWAY—wonderful flower. Good form. Medium size, clear deep yellow. Large Cup. GREENLAND—white perianth tinged the palest green. White medium cup edged with delicate cream. Green throat. Heavy substance.
Truly beautiful. MILANI stunning yellow trumpet. Gold. Perfect. Large. RosARito—perianth white. Large cup, pinkish apricot with a wide frilled edge. Slightly fragrant. Lovely. SPELLBINDER and MOONSTRUCK—leave a note for Santa Claus!
44659 by Molly Price