Our gardens are still full of summer colour but it will soon be time to think about spring. Thousands of packs of colourful spring-flowering bulbs will be filling the shelves at Nags Hall to tempt you and they will be selling fast. So if you want the best and newest kinds you can’t leave it too long!
If you were to dig up a daffodil bulb in the garden now you would find it has already started to produce roots. As well as the small bulbs, like crocus, scillas and snowdrops, daffodils (narcissus) are best planted before the end of October. Early planting allows the bulbs to root early and make good growth before flowering which benefits flowering next spring but, most importantly, the following year.
So where can you plant daffodils?
Daffodils prefer a spot in sun or part shade. They will not bloom well in dense shade. Of course they will flower anywhere the first year because the bulbs come complete with flower buds inside.
You can grow them in pots, window boxes and even hanging baskets but choose dwarf kinds for this. Daffodils will grow and flower for many years without special care whether in pots or in borders or the lawn. But you must allow the foliage to die down naturally after the flowers fade. You need to leave the foliage for at least six weeks after flowering and do not cut it off prematurely.
The foliage can be unattractive as it dies down so you need to site them with care. In the border it need not be an issue if you plant them in and around herbaceous plants. Peonies and day lilies will grow and cover up fading leaves. When planting in grass it is best to choose small and early-flowering kinds so you do not have to wait too long to cut the grass. It is best to plant dense clumps of daffodils so you can leave small areas to mow later and NOT scatter them over large areas of lawn.
It does not matter whether the soil is acid or alkaline and clay soils are suitable but not soil that are under water for prolonged periods in winter.
If you are planting daffs in pots for one season, to bloom next year, you can use multipurpose compost and then dig them up and replant the pots for summer and put the bulbs in the garden. If you want to plant pots permanently then use John Innes compost. If you have shrubs in pots or fruit trees, you can plant daffodils under them and leave them for years. Again, dwarf kinds are best in this situation.
The perfect daffodil?
I grow well over 100 different sorts of daffodils and if it were any other group of plants I would find it impossible to pick a favourite. But with daffodils it is easy. Although ‘Tête-à-tête’ does not have the biggest or the most unusual flowers, it is the one that I always suggest people plant if they want an easy daffodil. It has an unusual history as you can read in one of my other posts.
It flowers early, increases quickly and is reliable and hardy. The flowers start to open soon after the buds appear through the soil and the stems extend as the blooms mature. Each bulb will produce lots of flowers, depending on the bulb size. It has produced a double ‘sport’ and you can now plant ‘Tête Boucle’. This has all the same good habits but the flowers are fully double and very attractive. Fortunately the stems are strong enough to support the heavy flowers.
‘Tête-à-tête’ flowers early so is good to plant in grass. It is short so ideal for pots and rockeries and it is such a good grower that it is also one of the cheapest to buy so you can afford to be generous with them. Plant the bulbs so the top is 5-8cm deep and plant 8-10cm apart in the lawn or border. You can plant them almost-touching in pots for a really dense display the first year.
Another great daffodil is ‘Jetfire’ which has bright, reflexed petals and an orange trumpet. It is an early and bright option that is short but not quite dwarf and perfect for pots and the garden.
Something different?
Not all daffodils are yellow and the range of colours now include white, cream, orange, almost red and pink. The first pink daffodils were not really pink and they often opened yellow before the cup or trumpet aged to salmon pink. But now there are some good, bright pinks. The outer petals are usually white, and a very few are yellow. I have planted various pink and white daffodils along my drive. They are no more difficult than other daffs and definitely make a delicate contrast to brighter shades.
The ‘bulbocodium’ daffodils are often called ‘hoop petticoat’ daffodils and have grassy leaves, tiny petals and inflated trumpets. They need a sunny spot and well-drained soil but are charming in rockeries and in grass where they can flower as early as January and pop up blooms for several months. ‘Spoirot’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ are both white and worth a try – they have worked well with me.
Among the last to bloom are the ‘tazetta’ narcissus. They usually have many flowers on each stem and are highly fragrant. They prefer a sunny, warm spot and include the tender ‘Paperwhite’. But most are hardy and among the best is the confusingly named ‘Geranium’ with orange and white blooms. It will grow in any sunny spot and is vigorous and great for cutting.
Look out for an ancient daffodil that was, until recently, quite rare but is now widely available. Called ‘Van Sion’, it is among the most ancient of all cultivated daffodils, dating back to at least 1620, and has very double flowers. Sometimes all the petals are confined within the trumpet but at other times the trumpet splits and the flower is a mass of narrow petals. It is quite short in stature and is great for naturalising in grass. I love it because. when I was a child, I remember it growing ‘wild’ in woodland in Lingfield that was obviously once a garden. It must have survived many decades without any care and yet still grew and flower strongly each spring.
Weekly reminders
Take cuttings of tender perennials such as fuchsias and pelargoniums, penstemons and diascias
Lift and dry off garlic and onions
Apply an autumn lawn food to feed the grass and get it ready for winter
Prune wisteria, shortening new growths to four leaves
Complete any pruning of plums and cherries now