The first spring after we moved to the farm, almost three years ago, I eagerly anticipated daffodils (Narcissus) popping up to brighten those often dreary days of early spring. However, I was fairly disappointed, with the exception of a few clumps popping up here or there (often where a tree once stood!).
Daffodils perform best when planted in the fall as they require chill hours in order to bloom the following spring. Therefore, the following fall, I got busy planting lots and lots of daffodils. I planted a mixture of varieties with early, mid and late bloom times so that I would get a longer season of blooms! Many of my varieties came from Floret and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs. Erin’s recommendations are spot on as their stem length are nice and long! The Guidelines for Growing Daffodils from the American Daffodil Society is a great resource for planting, growing and storing daffodils.
I’m a complete romantic, so I love the ruffly and layered ones but I honestly can say that I love them all and in all the various colors! This season, I’ve been really enjoying the white ones with orange centers.
I love to arrange bunches of the same flower together, it’s probably my favorite, and easy, way to arrange flowers. I have an old glass milk bottle that our daffodils look great in, but I’ve also just thrown them in mason jars and stuck them around the house. This year, I put a small bouquet of them in an old, glass 7-Up bottle that we found on our property and I loved how it looked.
A word of warning, when cut, daffodils will ooze out their sap which can be toxic to other types of flowers. So if arranging daffodils with another flower you will need to take precautions such as searing the ends of the stems.
This year, my sister hosted a delicious brunch and I brought the flowers for the table. I was really pleased with how the arrangement turned out! In addition to growing the flowers, I was able to forage raspberry greens, crabapple branches and spirea from our property! And really, don’t all those varieties of daffodils looks glorious together?
