Kitchen Garden Forum

I have been enjoying the daffodils around our village green which were planted about 20 years ago and which have slowly increased as they have naturalised over the years. We have a few in our garden which were planted abiut 30 years ago so I'm wondering what is the life of the average daffodil bulb.

It seems to me that for their comparatively low cost they have the capacity to generate a huge amount of pleasure for a long period of time.

I always wonder about the provenance of that those solitary clumps of daffodils you see planted in roadside verges all over the country. A memory of a sad traffic accident perhaps? Strange how daffodils always seem to be selected rather than other flowers.

My mother planted some King Alfred daffodils when she was expecting me 68 years ago and there is one remaining. She told me this when I was planting a batch of Carlton daffodils when I was expecting my first baby 45 years ago and there are quite a few clumps of those still going strong. So they seem to go on indefinitely if they are undisturbed.

I don't know how long an individual Daffodil bulb lasts but when they naturalise one becomes a colony so the progeny goes on indefinitely I guess. Think Wordsworth - still there today waiting to clog The Lakes with traffic in a few weeks.

Has anyone else noticed that the daffodils which appeared really early this year were small? Assume these are a different variety to the usual ones? Only thing is that I've never planted any in my garden and we had lots!

Yes, there are a lot of "miniature" varieties. I like them for two reasons, firstly, they generally bloom earlier which is a welcome sight after the bleakness of winter, and also they seem to stand up better to the winter winds and don't get blown over and battered by the winds to the same degree. Probably a mixture of both is the best combination to prolong the flowering season.