The National Garden Bureau has proclaimed 2017 the Year of the Daffodil. Every year the organization selects one perennial, one annual, one bulb and an edible to feature. The daffodil is this year's bulb choice. You can read all about it, including care tips, here. Since I love daffs I am jumping on this bandwagon to share a few of my favorites that I grow in my garden.
You may notice one quirky thing about all my daffodil flowers: they're white or cream and not bright yellow. Those big bright yellow daffodils just don't do it for me. I want more charm, more delicacy and a little horticultural history with my bulbs. So, naturally, I grow Pheasant's Eye or Poet's Narcissus (N. poeticus 'recurvus) which was first mentioned in the 1600s. This daffodil is late, naturalizes and is scented.
When I discovered Narcisssus 'Dreamlight' I was smitten. I've been growing this beauty for ten years. Old House Gardens, where I bought this variety, calls 'Dreamlight' a "platinum blonde pheasant's eye" which I consider a perfect description.
I grow enough daffodils that I feel free to cut them for bouquets like this one which includes N. 'Dreamlight', N. 'Rose of May' (a double variety), stems of Epimedium and Hellebores flowers turning green and going to seed.
This is N. 'Sinopel' which looks very yellow in bud and, indeed, opens with yellow-washed petals on the back and front. The eye is very yellow which is how it presents in cooler temps. When it is warmer or it is indoors, it tends to be a bit more green.
This bulb combo in the driveway garden bloomed for the first time last spring and it is a winner in my book: Muscari armeniacum 'Saffir,' which is sterile so the florets don't open and Narcissus 'W.P. Milner'.
My idea of yellow daffodils! Flowers in this group include Narcissus 'Beersheba' (1923), N. moschatus (1604) and N. 'W.P. Milner' (1869). 'Beersheba' is the largest one and its trumpet opens yellow and quickly fades to cream. Also in the grouping are Helleborus Royal Heritage Strain and H. 'Sympathy'. There's a spray of Dicentra spectabalis foliage and a stem of Hyacinth 'City of Haarlem'.
Oh, Linda, these are lovely. What fun it must be to walk in your garden seeing them in bloom.
Posted by: Barbara H. | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 07:21 AM
I am so looking forward to the moment that finally happens; most likely April and May.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 07:49 AM
Exciting that this is the year of the Daffodil! Yours are charming & I'm especially fond of Poets Daffodil. I inherited a few with this garden, they've bloomed reliably for the twenty years we've been here, and the scent is divine. I also like the screaming yellow early varieties blooming around town beneath pink-blossomed ornamental plum trees. The cheerful color is just the thing for eyes tired of gray skies and rain.
Posted by: Peter/Outlaw | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 08:59 AM
Beautiful. I inherited great swathes of the most searingly yellow, blowsiest daffodils on the planet and am gradually phasing them out in favour of the miniatures and the more discreet. The Pheasant's Eye is my favourite. Struggling to establish it though because the slugs like it too. Being later to emerge it is well into slug season.
Posted by: rusty duck | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 10:18 AM
Back in the 60s I had a favorite skirt striped in hot pink and yellow that i wore with a yellow top and hot pink shoes. Those were the days. Can't wear that combo any more and don't want much of it in the garden either!
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 10:42 AM
I don't think I've ever had a problem with slugs and daffs but now you have me nervous!
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 10:44 AM
Now those are daffodils I can appreciate!
Posted by: Loree / danger garden | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 10:49 AM
Your daffs are so beautiful. Ordinarily I'm with you on the yellow daffodils. I have an issue with bright yellow in the garden to begin with (I blame it on a "coreopsis incident" when I first started), but there is something about the brightest yellow right at the beginning of daffodil season that I enjoy. We planted something like 450 daffodils last year, about half in a wooded area where we're hoping they will naturalize. I just bought a bunch of naturalizing mixes and I don't even recall what specifically was in them so it will be a bit of a surprise. The others were a pink mix for a specific area of the garden. Pink daffodils look somewhat unnatural to me, but I wanted pink for this area so we'll see how that turns out.
Posted by: Erin @ The Impatient Gardener | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 12:27 PM
A lovely lot of daffodils. I am always amazed that you know the names and backgrounds about your plants. I love the idea of 'Pheasant's Eye' as a description of a flower. I like those big fat yellow shouts of spring in my garden. I enjoy the surprised of seeing them when we drive down a country road and there is a flock of them in a pasture, along a bank telling the story of a farm that once graced an area.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Wednesday, March 01, 2017 at 04:28 AM
If I think of them as a flock in a pasture, then somehow bright yellow seems the perfect color!
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Wednesday, March 01, 2017 at 07:30 AM