Everyone who plants a garden learns to know and love daffodils early. However, it still comes as a surprise to learn that more than 11,000 varieties were listed in the 1954 edition of the Royal Horticultural Society list.
However, the newest list has eliminated the names of 4,000 that no longer exist or are of little importance. Yet hybridizers and growers are constantly developing new and better varieties.
Daffodils are thought of as yellow spring-time flowers with trumpets, but this description applies to but a small part of the group.
Daffodil color ranges from deep, golden yellow to lemon, rich cream, and glistening white.
The trumpets, cups, or crowns may be deep, burning orange, cool green-yellow, or variations of lovely apricot pink, in addition to the basic yellow and white variations.
But daffodils do not depend on color alone for variation. There are so many flower shapes that an official classification system has been set up, which recognizes 10 basic daffodil types.
What’s In A Name
What about the words daffodil, jonquil, and narcissus? All three of these are used interchangeably by gardeners.
While one of them may mean one thing in one place a few miles away, it may mean just the opposite. In the simplest possible terms, these definitions should suffice.
Daffodil
Daffodil is a common name for the entire group, even though it is not often applied to some of the smaller flowering sorts.
Narcissus
Narcissus is the correct botanical or scientific name for the whole group. Furthermore, it is a common name in some instances, such as when referring to paper-white narcissus.
If a person uses this name as a common name, he will always be correct.
Jonquil
Jonquil, perhaps the most controversial of the three, correctly applies to only one small-flowered, dark yellow, heavily scented daffodil or narcissus.
Its leaves are round, like those of an onion, rather than flat, and the flowers are borne in a cluster of from two to six.
The correct botanical name for this daffodil is Narcissus jonquilla, and it is not commonly seen in gardens.
Sometimes the name jonquil refers to the hybrids derived from this species, but these hybrids also are unlike the more commonly seen garden daffodils.
Learn and Recognize Daffodil Characteristics
To learn to recognize the different types of daffodils, it is necessary to know a few characteristics and the terms applied to the flower parts.
Trumpet, Cup, and Corona
The words trumpet, cup, and corona refer to the center portion of the flower.
This may vary in shape from the typical long, tube-like trumpet to a more nearly cup-shaped structure—down the scale in size to a small, button-like disc.
Usually, the trumpet applies only to the largest structure, cup to the medium, and sometimes crown to the smallest center discs.
Correctly, the word corona is applied to this central structure of the daffodil flower, regardless of its size or shape.
Perianth
The wheel or circle of petals surrounding the central corona is called the perianth. This is easy to remember since it comes directly from the Greek peri meaning about or all-around, and anthos which means flower.
Classification System
The classification system depends upon the size relationship between the corona and the perianth in the first three divisions of narcissi.
In these, the largest number of the most showy daffodil hybrids fall. However, this size relationship between the flower parts has nothing to do with the overall size of the flower.
In measuring the length of these parts, it is necessary to fold down one of the perianth segments or petals against the corona to see which is longer and by how much. Only one flower is borne on each stem in the first three divisions.
44659 by Carlton B. Lees