Blue Ridge County - March/April 2014 - 60

G Daffodils

Text and photos by Elizabeth Hunter

Mountain
Garden

AS BULBS, THEY HAVE IT ALL OVER TULIPS.
"IF YOU WANT TO FEED the deer, rabbits, squirrels, and woodchucks in your
neighborhood, keep in mind that they
prefer a diet rich in tulips!" -Katie
Stannard, in the Brooklyn Botanic
Garden's Spring-Blooming Bulbs
It's not often that I look for (or find)
humor in gardening books. Crammed
with excellent gardening advice (some
of it contradictory) their tone is invariably earnest. So I was happy, getting
ready to write this column, to come
across the quote above from Katie
Stannard. It also recalled the lamentations I have listened to from two gardening friends who have the
misfortune to love tulips. Each planted
something approaching 100 tulips,
envisioning brilliant spring displays.
Each looked eagerly for tulip leaves
pushing through the soil. Each had
been dismayed that planting 100
tulips had produced a grand total of
two blooms.
Fortunately for me, I'm not a big
fan of tulips. Fortunately, back in
1989, when I bought a new Tercel,
Toyota shipped me 20 daffodil bulbs, I
guess as a thank you. Haphazard gardener that I was then, I'm sure I
planted them with zero soil preparation and little thought about location.
Fortunately, those bulbs were
designed for people like me. All they
wanted was soil to grow in. True,
those I planted in the perpetual shade
cast by the north side of the house
didn't bloom after the first or second

Above, drifts of daffodils herald spring long before trees are in leaf; right, old
fashioned double daffodils persist at abandoned homesteads.

year. But 25 years later they're still
alive, sending up a few spindly green
spears each spring. Every year I vow I'll
move them. But by the time you're
supposed to move daffodils (the fall),
the foliage has been gone for months,

and my mind is on anything but daffodils. Maybe this year.
The bulbs I planted in places getting
some sun reveal their sunny dispositions in an abundance of spring bloom
- and not because I've been pamper-

QUALTIES AND CARE

There is a bewildering number of varieties of daffodils: miniatures to large varieties; heavily- to
unscented; singles and doubles; early and late;
multi-colored to single-colored blooms, in shades
of yellow, cream, pink and white. Choose smaller
varieties for rockeries and the front of the border.
* Daffodils make superb cut flowers. Pick those
knocked down by hard spring rains, wash their
faces and fill vases with them.
60 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

* Once daffodils have finished blooming, deadhead so they don't waste energy they could store
for next year's bloom. However, do not remove
foliage until it has died back, no matter how
unsightly. If you naturalized with them in part of
your lawn, refrain from mowing that area until foliage has yellowed. Add bonemeal after flowering
for next year's blooms.

* Resist the temptation to rake off mulch in late
winter, since it provides protection against cold,
drying winds. Loosen it, if you must, then let daffodils come up through it.
* Water late flowering varieties in a dry spring.
* If daffodils are producing mostly foliage, mark
their location, then dig and replant in fal

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Blue Ridge County - March/April 2014

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