Daffodils

It is Spring here at the cabin – and it arrives with the first of my daffodils, February Gold, blooming just around February 15th.

This is the first year in the last few years that they have bloomed so well-, having been divided and spread out a bit last Fall.

The next to bloom, is the grouping down the hill by the tool shed.

This is a beautiful combination of the yellow trumpet, Unsurpassable,

And the yellow and white Ice Follies.

I am really pleased with the bed of bulbs that I had transplanted two years ago from the power line right-away at the front of our property. This bed is a mix of a yellow daffodil and a bicolor yellow and orange variety that I had planted many years ago. I have since forgotten what varieties they were, but they have always bloomed so well each year that I wanted to move them closer to the house to enjoy.

Inter-planted with the daffodils are a mix of daylilies which will bloom in the Summer. The idea is that the foliage of the daylilies will hide the yellowing daffodil foliage as they die back. The only problem has been…I think the deer really like to eat the daylilies!

One of my favorite varieties of daffodils are the little jonquils in the orchard, 

This heirloom variety, Queen Elizabeth, has a double blossom that almost looks like a rose.

In the back flower bed is Salome, a white and salmon-pink bloom.

Down the hill and under the crape myrtles, in the newly cleared area, is a mix called “the Works” for southern climates.

These pictures were taken before they were in full bloom and do not do them justice. This is their 2nd season. I was waiting to see how they did this year, before planting more. This coming Fall, I think I will  double their number.

I love daffodils. You plant them in the Fall when they are just a fairly plain looking bulb- one variety not easily distinguishable from another. You bury them in the ground and wait…..Winter comes and the leaves, and maybe snow and ice, cover them.  Then as the weather warms…..they put up green shoots….and bloom!

After the blooms are spent, the daffodil foliage remains, allowing the plant to draw nutrients from the ground and to store it in the bulb. Then the daffodil’s leaves yellow and die back, leaving only the bulb underground….. to be forgotten…….through the heat of the Summer and the cold of the Winter…..They get walked on and mowed over…..subject to rain and/or drought……until next Spring, when they will bloom once again!

Daffodils are low maintenance. They need little care- if you fertilize then now and again, they will reward you with larger blooms. They will come back and re-bloom year after year, and will multiply- only asking for a bit of ‘elbow room’ from time to time, to bloom well. The deer will not eat the daffodil foliage or the blooms, and the moles and other underground ‘critters’ don’t bother the bulbs.

Daffodils speak to me of hope and promise…...of  tenacity and resilience…... and renewal of life…….