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Hard not to love daffodils
I've overordered again, of course, and with no time for planting now there¿s nothing for it but to fill up the refrigerator produce drawers with daffodil bulbs and await a warm day in the month ahead to get them in the ground. Daffodils have much to recommend them. They bloom early, some as early as January. Voles and chipmunks don't like the taste of the bulbs and leave them alone. Deer also give the top growth a wide berth. They live for years and multiply. They have a long vase life and many are wonderfully fragrant. What's not to love? Narcissus is a genus in the amaryllis plant family. Daffodils are a species of narcissus, as are jonquils. If we want to be entirely accurate about all this (and we probably don't), Jonquils have smaller blooms than daffodils with more than one bloom per stem and are very fragrant. It is simple enough in my garden, I just call them all "daffodils." Plant daffodils before the ground freezes in fall. Plant each bulb at least six inches deep and four or five inches apart. We need to be concerned about good drainage, so add some compost or gravel to the planting site. Don't add fertilizer in the hole with the bulb, but dig it in on the soil's surface. There are commercial bulb fertilizers available, but mine seem to be perfectly happy with 10-10-10 at planting time and in spring. The Daffodil Police will come and get you if you plant your bulbs in sparse, straight rows. You'll get more clout if you dig up a circle and plant eight or ten bulbs of the same species. A meandering trench works well, too, if you have a lot of bulbs. Don't plant daffodils in an area that you¿re going to mow because daffodil foliage must be left undisturbed on the plant until it dies down in early summer. The bulb needs the green growth to produce food for next year¿s flowering. After two or three years, each bulb you planted will produce others and the crowding will reduce blooming. When the foliage dies down, dig up the clumps and divide them. Store them in a cool place until next fall or plant them in their new homes when you dig them up. Daffodils can be planted in full sun or under deciduous trees. Planted under trees that lose their leaves in winter, there will be enough sun when the bulbs need it as the foliage is emerging in late winter. I've never met a daffodil I didn't love, but if I could have only one it would be "DoraKing Alfred," a big yellow one - or maybe "Ice Follies¿" which is a big white one. If you want catalogs like the ones that always get me in such trouble, go to breckbulbs.com or vanbourgandienbulbs. com.
Dora Garrick Fleming lives in Grove Hill. E-mail her at:
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