Two Old Daffodils Delight New Customer

        After Donna Jarrow’s first bulbs from us bloomed in her zone-7, Palmyra, Virginia garden, she wrote us happily:
        “Your bulbs were the biggest I’ve seen! ‘April Queen’ was a real show stopper — HUGE blooms, very strong stems, and it lasted a long time. But, being a purist, nothing is more beautiful to me than my ‘Carlton’ . . . pure deep yellow daffs. Mine are in one of the hottest parts of the yard and bloom for four weeks MINIMUM. The greens last a very long time, too, which I love.”
        Donna also had some good advice: “I am against braiding the greens or folding them over and using rubbers bands or string to keep them tidy. Sun needs to hit all parts of the leaves so they can suck in as much energy as possible for the following year’s booms. People who need NEAT gardens should live in apartments!” (Sept. 2010)

ADS Offers Rare 1930s Daffodil Yearbooks on CD

       Fans of historic daffodils will be happy to hear that four rare volumes of The American Daffodil Year Book from 1935-1938 are now available on CD. The 300-plus pages of text include a wide variety of articles such as “In Praise of Old Daffodils,” “Daffodils in Texas,” “Naturalizing Narcissi,” and – our personal favorite – “A Daffodil Parade in Michigan.” Even better, the full 325 pages are completely searchable. That means if you want to find references to, say, ‘Argent’; or fragrance or daffodils for the South, just type those words into the search box and voila!
       A collaborative effort by the American Horticultural Society and the American Daffodil Society, the four-volume CD is available from the ADS website for just $10 – and worth every penny. (Aug. 2010)

Narcissus Stamps to Celebrate Year of the Tiger

        For centuries, cluster-flowered tazetta narcissus much like our ‘Grand Primo’ and ‘Avalanche’ have been an important part of New Year’s festivities in Asia. Their gold cups symbolize wealth, and if they bloom on New Year’s Day, it’s said you’ll have luck and prosperity throughout the year. To celebrate New Year’s Day for the year 4707 which is coming up February 14, the post office is issuing a bright red 44-cent stamp decorated with these traditional narcissus. Take a look! (Jan. 2010)

Breaking News: ‘Dreamlight’ Wins Daffodil Society’s Top Honor

        The Wister Award is a lot like the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, a rare honor that goes only to those who have proven their excellence over the long run. And this year’s winner is . . . ‘Dreamlight’! A favorite of savvy gardeners since 1934, this glamorous beauty has a flat, rippled cup of champagne-white ringed with apricot. (Unfortunately we’re sold out for this fall but you can order it for NEXT fall – at no increase in price – starting the day after Thanksgiving.) Also winning the Award this year were ‘Sun Disc’ (1946) and ‘Misty Glen’ (1976). For a list of all 29 previous honorees (including ‘Saint Keverne’ and ‘Sweetness’), go to daffodilusa.org/references/wister.html. (Nov. 2009)

Triumphing Over Adversity: Mighty ‘Carlton’

        We have a saying here at Old House Gardens: “Bulbs want to grow.” By that we mean they’re amazingly resilient if you give them half a chance – as you’ll see in this story from our friend Kit Steinaway:
        “In October a couple of years ago I sent 50 ‘Carlton’ daffodils to Syracuse, NY, to be planted in the wooded backyard of my friend for her 50th birthday the following April. Her husband was going to plant them while she was gone, and their blooming would be her surprise gift. Along with the bulbs I sent instructions, and her husband successfully planted a huge bag of bulbs in the backyard (with only two phone calls to me for additional guidance). In April they bloomed and my friend was thrilled with the surprise. End of story? Not quite . . . .
        “When I visited their home in August that same year, the husband pulled me aside and sheepishly admitted that he had recently found something in the garage – a second bag of ‘Carlton’ bulbs. They had been stuck in a corner of the garage for nine months! Since they still felt firm and heavy, we went ahead and planted them in another part of the yard, without much hope. In May my friend reported that all were blooming beautifully.
        “When you tell people that these babies want to grow, you are not kidding!” (August 2009)

Capturing the Fragrance of Jonquils

        Ken Druse does his best to capture one of history’s best-loved floral fragrances in this excerpt from his always interesting email newsletter, Real Dirt:
        “The sweetest of the daffodil relatives for fragrance is the species Narcissus jonquilla, the true jonquil [often called “Sweeties” and “Cologne Bottle”]. Where the paperwhite is heavy, the jonquil is delicate. There is a faint fragrance of the other daffodils, but with a cool honeysuckle note and the barest hint of lemon and spice. The jonquil reminds me of linen drying on the clothesline, with honeysuckle and a top note of sweet butter.” (August 2009)

March 1, Wear a Daffodil (or Leek!) for St. David of Wales

        While researching daffodil history, we stumbled upon this interesting bit at Wikipedia.com:
        “Saint David’s Day . . . is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on March 1 each year. The date . . . was chosen in remembrance of the death of Saint David on that day in 589, and has been celebrated . . . since then. The date was declared a national day of celebration . . . in the 18th century.
        “On this day many Welsh people wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their lapel to celebrate: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol . . .) or the leek (Saint David’s personal symbol). The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, cenin (leek) and cenin Bedr (daffodil, literally “Peter’s leek”).
        “In south Wales males usually wear leeks while young girls wear daffodils; in the north the daffodil predominates.” (Feb. 2009)

Daffodil Shows Start March 7, National Show in Chicago in April

        For a heaping, soul-satisfying helping of daffodil beauty and diversity, make plans to visit an American Daffodil Society show this spring. Forty-two shows, free and open to the public, are scheduled all across the country, starting with the Texas and Northern California shows March 7-8 and ending with the show in West Boylston, MA, May 3-4. For a complete listing, see the “Events and Show Schedule” at daffodilusa.org/events/show.html.
        Biggest and grandest of all is the National Show April 25-27 at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Over 1000 blooms will be in the competition, including – as in most local shows – a whole section devoted to Historic Pre-1940 Daffodils. Outside, thousands of daffodils will be blooming, including 50-100 each of eight different heirlooms we donated to the Garden last fall in celebration of the show. For more info, visit ads2009convention.org. (Feb. 2009)

Proof that Spring is Coming

        For those of you shivering in the grip of Arctic cold, here’s a preview of what’s sure to reach us all before long: Spring, glorious, unstoppable spring.
        On January 9 our terrific Louisiana grower sent us a photo of his Minor Monarque narcissus in full bloom under his pecan trees. “The first one bloomed on Dec. 11,” he wrote, “and this week they are just past their peak. Early Pearl are a week behind them, and the Campernelles are just starting to bloom now.” Woo-hoo! (Jan. 2009)

        In this excerpt from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver describes what is most likely Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the early yellow trumpet daffodil of the South – and reveals herself as a kindred spirit to heirloom-flower lovers everywhere:
        “The greatest rewards of living in an old farmhouse are the stories and the gardens, if they’re still intact in any form. We are lucky enough to have both. The banks all around us are crowded with flowering shrubs and hummocks of perennial bulbs that never fail to please and startle us, like old friends leaping from behind the furniture to yell, ‘Surprise!’ These flowers are gifts from a previous century, a previous dweller here – a tale, told in flowers, of one farm wife’s fondness for beauty and this place.
        “In a few more months we’d be drunk on the scent of Lizzie Webb’s mock oranges and lilacs, but the show begins modestly in April with her tiny Lenten roses, white-petaled snowdrops, and the wildish little daffodils called jonquils that have naturalized all over the grassy slopes. As Lily and I walked single file up the path to the greenhouse, I noticed these were up, poking their snub, yellow-tipped noses through a fringe of leaves.
        “‘Oh, Mama,’ Lily cried, ‘look what’s about to bloom – the tranquils.’ There went the last of the needles of ice around my heart, and I understood I’d be doomed to calling the jonquils tranquils for the rest of my days. Lily is my youngest. Maybe you know how these things go. In our family, those pink birds with the long necks are called flingmos because of how their real name was cutely jumbled by my brother’s youngest child – and that was, yikes, twenty years ago.” (Jan. 2009)

Do Animals Eat Your Bulbs? Try These!

        For a quick list of bulbs that animals rarely eat, click the “Animal Resistant” box at our easy Advanced Bulb Search.
        Daffodils and snowflakes (Leucojum) are usually completely animal-proof, and other bulbs that most animals won’t touch include alliums, Camassia, glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa), Colchicum, Crocus tommasinianus, winter aconite (Eranthis), crown imperials, snowdrops (Galanthus), hyacinths, Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides), Ipheion, grape hyacinths (Muscari), silver bells (Ornithogalum nutans), and Scilla siberica.
        Tulips and lilies, unfortunately, are a favorite on most animal menus. For tips on keeping them safe, see “Protecting from Animals” in our online Planting and Care. (Oct. 2008)

That Was Then: Picking Daffodils for a Nickel

        In a fascinating article titled “Daffodils, Pears, Melons, and More” in the spring 2007 issue of The Illinois Steward, Judith Joy writes:
        98-year-old Mary Winks Weeks “still remembers the old days when the fields around Alma [Illinois] were covered with golden daffodils. When the flowers were in bloom, school was delayed so that the children could harvest the daffodils at the peak of freshness. The children were paid according to their size. ‘I was small for my age, so I got put in the nickel bunch,’ Mrs. Weeks recalled. Asked if she got a nickel for each bunch of flowers, she answered that the nickel was for the morning’s work.
        “After the children went off to school, the women in the packing shed sorted the daffodils and packed them – 13 to a bunch – in cardboard cartons for shipment to the Water Street Market in Chicago. By planting a number of different varieties, growers extended the season from the first King Alfreds to the later blooming Narcissus type [probably N. poeticus recurvus]. The early bloomers were called Easter Flowers, the name still used by many local people, and the later ones were known as Mother’s Day Flowers.”
        Mrs. Weeks’ grandfather was the first daffodil farmer in the area, starting with the classic ‘Emperor’ sometime around World War I. “At one time, 65 to 75 acres in Alma were devoted to daffodils, and . . . in addition to the 40 to 50 children who picked daffodils each morning, 100 women sorted and packed the flowers for shipment. . . .
        “One of Alma’s last daffodil growers was Mrs. Weeks’ brother, Eugene Winks. When interviewed in 1979 he said the business declined because ‘high school kids today are too lazy to pick, . . . the Railway Express Company went out of business, and . . . there are no more street peddlers.’ For many years, Winks operated a small roadside market in Alma, and when he died in 1995, it was the end of an era.” (Sept. 2008)

Blue-Ribbon Winning Historic Daffodils

        Congratulations to our good customer Raymond Rogers of North Brunswick, New Jersey, who writes:
        “I won five individual blue ribbons at two American Daffodil Society shows this past spring, as well as Best Historic, Best Vase of Three Historics, and Best Collection of Five Historics, with Beersheba, Mary Copeland, and Queen of the North, all from you. Keep ’em coming!” (Aug. 2008)

Your Garden Memories: From New Mother to Retirement with Mrs. Austin’s Jonquils

        Our good customer Frances Rogers of Bedford, Texas, writes:
        “When I was a young mother, my mother and I would often take my baby daughter for a drive, and there was one place in the spring that my mother showed me where there was a whole field of beautiful yellow jonquils, a truly awesome sight. The field was owned by the elderly lady, Mrs. Austin, who lived next door to it in an elderly house. I wanted very much to have some of those flowers, so we stopped and introduced ourselves and asked if she would sell some of the bulbs. This was way back before I became the fanatic gardener I am today.
        “Well, first Mrs. Austin said to come back at a particular date, and then she changed her mind, and it took about two years for her to settle on the date when we could come to get the bulbs. By that time, we now had a baby son as well as a toddler. My poor long-suffering husband was going to school part time and working full time, but nevertheless on the appointed day he took me to see Mrs. Austin and get the bulbs.
        “We had a very limited budget and I knew I could only buy a few. Well, it turned out that the man who usually dug Mrs. Austin’s bulbs had not shown up, so my dear husband, on a hot Texas June day, not only dug almost a whole row of bulbs, but also had the honor of buying some for me, a dollar’s worth, at 5 cents a bulb!
        “Of course, those bulbs thrived and bloomed. They went with us to the country home we moved to and lived at for over twenty-eight years, they multiplied amazingly, and some went to friends and neighbors. I always called them Mrs. Austin’s jonquils. When we moved from our old home place, I made sure that some of the bulbs were securely growing at my daughter’s home, then brought them to our retirement home.
        “Eventually I bought some Campernelles, and guess what! THEY are Mrs. Austin’s jonquils! So we have the ‘new’ Campernelles, but we also have a cherished group of the original Mrs. Austin’s. And I have to say that Mrs. Austin, with all her interesting ways, made it possible for me to spend every winter waiting for emerging bulb shoots, and every spring not only enjoying these wonderful bulbs, but also the memory of the little old lady who started my enthusiasm, which has now grown all out of bounds. Thank goodness.
        “P.S. My husband is still digging for me! He’s really a nice man.” (Jul. 2008)

DaffSeek.org Offers Thousands of Photos, Wants Yours

        DaffSeek.org is a great place to see and learn about thousands of daffodils. Sponsored by the American Daffodil Society, this simple website includes some 18,000 varieties that visitors can search by name, type, date, color, bloom season, and other criteria. Enter "1914," for example, and you'll get a list of 54 introduced that year, with photos of 12 including the charming 'Daphne' which we'll be offering in our new catalog.
        When the folks at DaffSeek asked to use 50 of our photos, we were happy to oblige. You can help, too, by sending clear, close-up photos to site-master Nancy Tackett at nancyt@netvista.net. She asks that you please:
        1. Take more than one photo of the same flower but from different angles such as front, side, etc.
        2. Send JPG files only, and in the original or highest possible resolution.
        3. For the filename, use the name of the daffodil as it appears in DaffSeek -- for example Grand Primo.jpg.
        4. If you send multiple photos of one variety, put a comma and ver# after the name -- for example Sir Watkin, ver2.jpg .
        170 photographers from fifteen countries have already contributed photos to DaffSeek. Yours could be there, too, enjoyed and appreciated by daffodil enthusiasts around the world! (April 2008)

Ugly Little Buggers: Daffodil Bulb Fly

        Deer-proof and rodent-proof, daffodils have only one pest that troubles them, the elusive daffodil bulb fly. And late spring is when it shows up in the garden. To learn more, visit our new web-page at oldhousegardens.com/DaffodilFly.asp . (April 2008)

Spring Starts with Stinky Narcissus

        Spring has sprung for many of you (we’re jealous!), and your tazettas may already be blooming. These cluster-flowered narcissus include paperwhites which are often forced on pebbles for winter bloom. Some gardeners love their rich fragrance, and others can’t stand it.
        Our California friend and tazetta expert, Bill Welch, explains, “About a quarter of the population cannot stand the scent of paperwhites, and that has poisoned their attitude towards the tazettas as a whole. Someone I know was doing a study of the chemical components of fragrance in various flowers, and he found that paperwhites had a lot more indole in them than other tazettas. Then he told me that indole is the same chemical given off by E. coli! Of course I don’t usually mention this to people who like paperwhites and ask if the others ‘smell as good’”!
        On the other side of the fence, our Texas friend, Greg Grant, writes: “I love the smell of all narcissus including paperwhites. Living on a farm however, the ‘manure’ tinge doesn’t affect me, I guess. Not everybody thinks it smells like manure. A new gardener I worked with said, ‘Ooh, smells like pee pee!’ The general rule is the more yellow in the flower (cups or petals) the better the scent (inherited from Narcissus tazetta orientalis) and the more white, the more ‘manure’ the scent (inherited from N. papyraceous).” (Feb. 2008)

Campernelles and Heaven

        Known since colonial days as the “large jonquil,” Campernelle narcissus are memorably fragrant — as our good customer Jan Ayers of Plano, Texas, makes clear:
        “When I saw the Campernelles you offer, I knew I had rediscovered my first childhood love! We had a whole row of those in our yard. I believe that if I can smell them as I die, I’ll go straight to heaven.” (Aug 2007)

“Mardi Gras Lilies” Lead Spring’s Parade

        “Mardi Gras lilies are nodding in the warm breeze,” Bill Finch wrote in the Mobile Press-Register February 2, giving a new name to a very old jonquil. “I can’t remember a Joe Cain Day when the Campernelle daffodils weren’t nodding in the wind — which is why they are our own special Mardi Gras lilies. As is the case throughout the South, the blooming of the Campernelles is a signal that spring has just begun.” (June 2007)

That’s Not a Weed, It’s a Historic Daffodil!

        Last weekend our friend Russell Studebaker led his annual tour of historic daffodils that survive at old cemeteries and other relic sites in rural Oklahoma. He writes:
        “I thought you might be interested in a comment from Saturday’s tour. We had stopped at the site where there are so many ‘Butter and Eggs’, and a lady who had taken last year’s tour with her father told me that after he saw those last year and learned their name and heritage, he stopped digging them up and throwing them away from his garden!” (March 2007)

Pickled Paperwhites Stand Up Straighter

        To prevent your paperwhites from getting tall and floppy, give them a good stiff drink. It’s true! Scientific testing by Professor Bill Miller of Cornell’s Flower Bulb Research Program confirmed that paperwhites grown in water with a 5% concentration of alcohol bloomed beautifully on stems one-third shorter than teetotaling paperwhites. Since most liquors are about 40% alcohol, that works out to 1 part booze to 7 parts water. Gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, and tequila all work well, but Miller cautions that, just as with humans, too much alcohol is disastrous. To read his entire entertaining report, click here. (Dec. 2006)

A Promising New Cure for Dementia: Daffodils

        Daffodils and dementia are two topics close to our hearts here at OHG. So when a friend sent us an article titled “Scientists hope daffodil crop will help tackle dementia,” we knew we had to share it with you! For this fascinating story about Welsh farmers, modern medicine, and hope, go to www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1724358,00.html. (June 2006)

An Expert Says: For Tough Southern Daffs, Start with St. Keverne

        Mississippi daffodil expert Ted Snazelle writing in the March 2006 edition of the American Daffodil Society’s Daffodil Journal had this advice for modern hybridizers:
        “Where does a Southerner begin in hybridizing daffodil reverse bicolors which are both resistant to the narcissus basal rot fungus [common in the South] and also of exhibition quality? I think one should look to cultivars which have ‘St. Keverne’ (1934, 2 Y-Y) in their pedigree or to ‘St. Keverne’ itself. ‘St. Keverne’ was used in hybridizing by the late Barbara Frye of Rosewarne because ‘many of the progeny acquired valuable basal rot resistance, upright bud, and good stem.’” (June 2006)

Horace: Read the Poet, Plant the Daffodil

        Many historic pheasant’s-eye or poet’s narcissus are named for poets, including our latest addition, ‘Horace’ [currently unavailable], from 1894. The roman poet Horace lived from 65-8 BCE and often celebrated rural pleasures in his work. Here’s a snippet from his Odes (2.11).
        Why don’t we lie beneath the tall plane tree
        or the pine, just as we are, and crown our white hair
        with fragrant roses, and anoint ourselves
        with Assyrian perfume, and drink, while we may? (2006-07 catalog)

‘Little Darlings’ Offer “Heavenly” Perfume

        Our good customer Emmy Morrison of Davidson, NC, writes:
        “My N. jonquilla ‘Early Louisiana’ have multiplied and are heavenly. Three stems in a vase scented our entire kitchen. I call them ‘Little Darlings,’ a name I picked up in Natchez.” (2006-07 catalog)

Posh UK Magazine Spotlights Heirloom Daffs and Our Friend Josephine

        The headline on the cover of the current Gardens Illustrated, the upscale British monthly, definitely caught our eye: “Heirloom Daffodils, Rescuing Forgotten Bulbs.” Inside, six pages are devoted to our good friend Josephine Dekker and her centuries-old farm in North Holland where she is collecting and propagating exactly the sort of daffodils we love.
        In fact, we’re proud to be the only US source for Josephine’s treasures. (And we got a kick out of Gardens Illustrated calling us THE Old House Gardens. It sounds much more distinguished, don’t you think?) You can pick up the April issue at many US bookstores and newsstands right now. (March 2006)
        [To learn more about Josephine, click here.]

Hot and Dry? Try These Daffodils!

        When the American Daffodil Society met in Dallas a couple of years ago, our friend Phil Huey gave a talk on daffodils for public plantings. Varieties he recommended as thriving in warm climates even without irrigation included our Erlicheer, Grand Primo, and Trevithian, along with heirloom February Gold, Fortune, Golden Dawn, Ice Follies, and Peeping Tom, and modern Dik Dik, Eclat, High Note, Pink Declaration, Pipit, Quail, and White Magnolia. (Sept. 2005)

Ukraine Protects Valley of the Narcissus

        Since the beginning of time, millions of wild pheasant’s-eye narcissus (close cousins to our N. poeticus recurvus and ‘Ornatus’) have been blooming every spring in a valley in Ukraine. As farming and other development encroached on this vast paradise, more and more of these richly fragrant flowers were plowed under or paved over. Eventually local conservationists mounted a “Save the Narcissus” campaign and now 643 acres are protected as part of a national park. We hear it’s an awesome sight in bloom, but if you go, be careful: the accumulated fragrance can be literally dizzying. For photos and more, visit www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20051/104. (July 2005)

        Many of our Southern friends have snapped up the new Daffodils in Florida book which is based on the life’s work of the late John Van Beck. John was a great friend of ours and of historic daffodils. He tested hundreds of varieties in zone 8b Tallahassee to discover those that did best in what he called the Spanish Moss Belt where modern, mainstream cultivars often fail. Here are ones John recommended to us before he died in 2001, with a few additions from the book itself. Most will thrive throughout the South.
        John Van Beck’s Very Best for Zone 8b: Avalanche, Carlton, Dick Wellband (needs shade), Early Pearl, Erlicheer, Geranium, Grand Primo, N. jonquilla Early Louisiana, Mrs. Backhouse (needs shade), Tenby, Texas Star, Thalia (needs shade), Sweetness, Trevithian.
        Other Excellent Performers: Butter and Eggs (needs shade), Campernelle, Double Campernelle, Empress, Orange Phoenix [currently unavailable] , N. pseudonarcissus (Lent lily), Queen of the North (despite its name!), St. Keverne, and Van Sion.
        Another challenging area for bulbs is the arid Southwest. Our friend Mary Peace Douglas who gardens in Tucson and Sonoita, Arizona, has been growing our bulbs since 1997. She reports great success with Avalanche, Conspicuus, Double Campernelle, Grand Primo, N. jonquilla Early Louisiana, and White Lady. If you’re in the Southwest, you might want to give some of these a try as well! (June 2005)

“Stunning” and “Profuse” in Mae’s California Garden

        Our long-time customer Mae Hoag of Orinda, California, writes of a new favorite and two old friends that just keep going and going:
        “What a beautiful flower ‘Red Devon’ is! I think it is my favorite of all. The deep orange on the outer edge of the cup softening to yellow closer to the perianth is truly stunning. The Campernelles and Early Louisiana jonquils I bought from you many years ago are still blooming profusely, too. Thank you!” (2005 catalog)

More on the Copeland Sisters and Their Daffodils

        More of you responded to the Copeland family history in our last newsletter than to anything else we’ve ever published here. We’re glad you liked it!
        Irene’s daughter wrote again this spring to say our bulbs were blooming beautifully for her family. She also told us that the RHS staged an exhibit of the Copeland doubles and their many descendants at the London Daffodil Show. As famed daffodil breeder Brian Duncan explained to us, it’s almost impossible to find a good modern double which does not have ‘Mary Copeland’ in its ancestry. Double daffodils rarely set seed, but one of two seeds found by chance in a single pod of ‘Mary Copeland’ in the 1940s grew into ‘Falaise’ which was fully fertile and opened the floodgates of double daffodil breeding. For a photo of the RHS exhibit and a couple of Brian’s great modern doubles descended from ‘Mary Copeland’, click here. (June 2005)

Who Were Irene and Mary Copeland? A Daughter Tells Their Story

        Two of the loveliest old double daffodils are ‘Irene Copeland’ and ‘Mary Copeland’. We knew they were named for the daughters of the man who bred them, but that’s about all we knew – till last spring when we got an email from Irene’s daughter. She was looking for bulbs of both daffodils to plant on Irene and Mary’s graves, but she couldn’t find true stock in England. Even though we don’t normally ship outside the US, for her we made an exception! In appreciation she sent us a short history of her mother and Auntie Mary along with a photo of them as teenagers. To enjoy both, click here. (May 2005)

Tour Spotlights Cherokee Daffodils in Oklahoma

        Our good friend Russell Studebaker, garden writer for the Tulsa World, led a pilgrimage two weeks ago to explore heirloom daffodils in rural Oklahoma that may date back to the earliest days of Cherokee settlement and the notorious Trail of Tears. For Russell’s inspiring report and a few photos, visit oldhousegardens.com/russellstudebaker.asp. And then consider leading a similar tour of rediscovery in your own neighborhood! (March 2005)

The First Daffodils of Spring are Often . . . Easter Lilies?

        Yes, “Easter lilies” is the traditional name many old gardeners give to Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the very old, very early-blooming trumpet daffodil that thrives from Cape Cod to Georgia and points west. Even in areas such as Piedmont, North Carolina where our friend Douglas Ruhren of the Daniel Stow Botanical Gardens says they usually bloom by Valentine’s Day, the Easter lilies name seems to have been more common than the traditional English name which we use, Lent lilies.
        According to our good customer Beate Jensen of Belmont, the estate of artist Gari Melchers in Fredericksburg, VA, the name is even more common in Norway. There all trumpet daffodils are called paskeliljer, which means Easter lilies, and all late-blooming pheasant’s eye daffodils are called pinseliljer or Ascension lilies. (Feb. 2005)

Daffodils in Florida: A Field Guide to the Costal South

        Daffodils in Florida? You betcha! Self-published by our friends Linda and Sara Van Beck, this exciting new book is, as Scott says on the back cover of it, “a friendly, knowing guide” for gardeners in the Deep South, especially zones 8b-9a, who have been “disappointed by daffodil duds while longing for, and wondering about, the hosts of nameless daffodils thriving without care in old gardens and abandoned places.” The Van Becks are passionate amateurs whose advice and lists of recommended varieties are based on years of research in Florida gardens. This is no slick coffee-table book but a labor of love for everyone who “loves daffodils and the tough, gorgeous, traditional flowers of the South.” (Jan. 2005)

Daffodil Shows Start Soon; OHG Customers Won Big Last Year

        Last spring, many of our customers won blue ribbons for “Best Historic Daffodil” at American Daffodil Society shows around the country. Congratulations to Glenda Brogoitti, Laura Anne Brooks, Jennifer Brown, Bonnie Campbell, Fred Fettig, Kirby Fong, Joe Hamm, Clay and Fran Higgins (winners at the National Show), Beth Holbrooke, John Lipscomb, Joy Mackinney, Becky Fox Matthews, Margaret Nichols, Nancy Pilipuf, Sandra Stewart (current ADS Historic Daffodils Committee chair), and Lissa Williamson!
        The winningest “Best Historic” daffodils included Beryl (13 ribbons!), Grand Primo (4), Rip van Winkle (3), and with two ribbons each: Actaea, Aspasia, Beersheba, Dreamlight, Folly, Geranium, Mary Copeland, Rubra, and Sweetness. Other winners included Chinese White, Elvira, Grand Monarque, Grey Lady, Hawera, Hexameter, Horsfieldii, Ideal, Juliet, Klondyke, Moonshine, Ornatus, Saint Keverne, Silver Chimes, Sparkling Eye, Sweet Pepper, Tain, Thalia, Trousseau, Van Sion, White Lady, White Owl, Yellow Cheerfulness, and Zero.
        A whole new season of ADS shows kicks off soon. For the one nearest you, or to learn more about the ADS, go to www.daffodilusa.org/. (Jan. 2005)

Daffodil Rescue of 75,000 Bulbs Led by Eagle Scout

        For years on a hillside in rural Pennsylvania, a colorful planting of daffodils in the shape of a big cross and the words “Welcome Spring” bloomed as a beloved local landmark. But recently the old farm was sold and the daffodils were about to be bulldozed. Happily, Eagle Scout Jeremy Corll organized a massive rescue project, moving some 75,000 bulbs down the road a bit to a hillside next to a local church. For the full inspiring story by our friend Doug Oster of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, or to buy some of the excess bulbs, go to www.post-gazette.com/pg/04228/360755.stm, follow the link to the church’s website, and then click on “Eagle Scout Project.” (Oct. 2004)

        If you see a “bee” buzzing loudly around your daffodils in late spring, there’s a good chance it’s a bulb fly, one of the very few pests that trouble daffodils. Our good customer Dona Townsend of Lebanon, Oregon, shares some unusual tips for combating it:
        “If you disturb a fly and then stand still, it seems to go back to where it was when you disturbed it. I use a blue fly swatter (they seem to see other colors) and swat them, but you have to find the flies and make sure they are dead. If they are simply stunned they will recover and fly off later. Be careful because if your shadow or the swatter’s shadow hits a fly, it immediately flies off.”
        And though we recommend poisons only as a last resort, Dona adds: “I’m also trying a rose systemic insecticide. I sprinkle it on just as the daffodils are coming through the ground and let the rain soak it into the soil. The roots pick up the systemic, which travels into the bulb. When the small larvae eat their way into the basal plate, they die. I’ve dug about 100 varieties and found only two that had fly damage.”
        For more on bulb flies, see ipm.ncsu.edu/AG136/fly4.html. (March 2004)

Mobile’s Bill Finch Lauds OHG and Daffodils for Zone 8/9

        Bill is the environmental editor for the Mobile Press-Register, and after reading one of his articles you’ll probably wish he wrote for your local paper. Recently he wrote, “Let me remind you where you’re most likely to find the bulbs that grow well in our climate: Old House Gardens.” Then he listed the daffodils he has found most reliable in his zone 9 garden. His top three are ‘Campernelle’, ‘Carlton’, and ‘Grand Monarque’ [currently unavailable], and he also highly recommends ‘Trevithian’, ‘Sweetness’, Lent lily (N. pseudonarcissus), ‘Avalanche’, ‘Thalia’, and ‘Early Louisiana’ jonquil. (Dec. 2003)

First Blooms of Spring: Our Customers Write

        Many thanks to everyone who shared stories of their first spring bloomers! Here are two about daffodils.
        Scott Thigpen of Sumter, SC, wrote: “Having grown up in Florida where we really don’t have a spring bloom, I get so excited when I see the first daffodils blooming here. They are usually our first change from brown and dead to color and life.” The earliest – starting February 1 this year – is “an abundant stand of small yellow daffodils” naturalized from an old homesite. These are N. pseudonarcissus, often known as the Lent lily and cherished since colonial days.
        Doug Ruhren of Belmont, NC, has flowers blooming all winter long, but he also wrote of the Lent lily: “I saw the first one yesterday, 2/7/03. It appeared freshly open. The gardens here were started in 1989, but these clearly are from an earlier inhabitant. They are mixed with “Scrambled Eggs” [‘Van Sion’ or ‘Butter and Eggs’] around an ancient Yoshino cherry tree.” (March 2003)

Who Is Mrs. Backhouse and Why Is She in My Garden – Twice?

        Ever wonder about the people whose names grace our flowers? Sarah Elizabeth Backhouse (1857-1921), was a gifted hybridizer of daffodils and other bulbs. She lived at Sutton Court, near Hereford, England, and with her husband worked for years trying to develop a daffodil with a red trumpet. Their efforts resulted in many award-winning varieties, but their greatest achievement was the luscious, pink-cupped ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ daffodil of 1921. It’s still so well loved that it’s one of our perennial best-sellers. But that’s not all! Mrs. B. also bred crocus, snowdrops, colchicums, hyacinths, and lilies, including a lovely, pink-and-amber martagon named ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’. (Feb. 2003)

Josephine Dekker, Daffodil Rescuer

        Josephine Dekker is not your usual Dutch bulb farmer. I visited her this spring in the North Holland farmhouse that her great-grandfather built and where she lives with her 83-year-old mother (who doesn’t look a day over 63) and several friendly cats. The house looks huge under its tall pyramidal roof, but the back two-thirds is actually the barn—a traditional arrangement that dates back to the Middle Ages. The front third, with its antique paneling, lace curtains, and sleeping cupboards, seems like a very cozy museum.
       Josephine rescues heirloom daffodils. She started by bringing old ones from the gardens of her countryside neighbors into her own front yard. “Because they are so beautiful,” she explains, “and they grow so well here.” Soon, though, she saw an opportunity, and though her farm lies well outside Holland’s bulb districts, she began collecting more and more old daffodils, propagating them in her fields, and taking them to experts to identify. Often she literally rescues the bulbs. ‘Seagull’, for example, she found lying in masses in someone’s driveway where he was drying the foliage so they’d fit more compactly into his garbage cans!
       We are proud to be working with Josephine. She’s a dirt farmer with the soul of a poet, hard-pressed as small-farmers everywhere are, but sensitive to a different sort of beauty and working hard to build a future from – and for – the past. (2001-02 catalog)

In John Van Beck’s Memory, Plant Florida-Loving Daffodils

        OHG and historic daffodils lost a great friend this past year with the passing of John Van Beck, founder of the Florida Daffodil Society. John was full of enthusiasm, humor, deep daffodil knowledge, and a maverick spirit. I’ll miss him a lot.
       John tested hundreds of Narcissus in zone-8b Tallahassee to discover the best ones for “the Spanish Moss Belt” where modern, mainstream cultivars often fail. For those we offer, click here. All will do well throughout most of the South. (2001-02 catalog)

Jane and Henry: “Falling in Love with a Flower”

        Jane Hearne of Johnson City, Tennessee, has joined the long list of customers who write us in praise of our true, Southern-heirloom Campernelle narcissus She writes:
       “The Campernelles I ordered from you . . . are exquisite. I am so taken with them – their beauty is so delicate. And to think they have endured for centuries.
       “I wanted to share a quote from Henry Mitchell with you: ‘I’ve seen in other gardeners a tendency to gaze at some flower as if glued to the spot and unaware of anything else. At first the gardener has the queasy feeling he’s falling in love with a flower. But as years pass he sees that some common flower has turned magical to him.’
       “That’s how I feel about my Campernelles.” (1999-2000 catalog)

Wordsworth’s “Daffodils” and the Pleasures of Memory

        Though you can probably quote a line or two from William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils,” when was the last time you read the whole thing? Here’s your chance.
        The daffodils that inspired Wordsworth as he vacationed in England’s Lake District were almost certainly N. pseudonarcissus, the Lent lily, which naturalizes happily in much of the US as well. But I think you’ll find the poem is really more about the pleasures of memory than daffodils – and much more than a sappy cliché.

“Daffodils,” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. (1999-2000 catalog)

Grandma Says: Those Aren’t Daffodils, They’re Jonquils!

        Our good customer Nancy Foster of Clemson, South Carolina, writes:
       “My grandmother (born 1884) called daffodils such as ‘Avalanche’ and ‘Laurens Koster’ ‘narcissus’ (as opposed to ‘paperwhites’) and all the yellow ones ‘jonquils.’ ‘Daffodils,’ on the other hand, were just something in a Wordsworth poem. Thanks for providing me with the ‘real’ narcissus and jonquils so precious to my childhood!” (1998-99 catalog)

‘Albus Plenus Odoratus’: The “Gardenia-Flowered” Narcissus

        Though the International Daffodil Register dates this double pheasant’s-eye to just 1861, forms indistinguishable from it were figured by Clusius in 1601 and Parkinson in 1629. Very beautiful and very fragrant, it’s can also be very demanding. The buds “blast” – fail to open— if the weather gets too hot, which easily happens as they bloom in latest spring.
        Surprisingly, I’ve had my best success with them planted near a warm wall. I’m guessing the extra warmth speeds them into bloom before the macro-climate heats up too much for them. ‘Albus Plenus Odoratus’ is still widely planted in mild, mistyEngland, and we hear rapturous reports of it from New England and the Pacific Northwest. (1995 catalog)

On Daffodils and Ecstasy

        Though some may say Louise Beebe Wilder gets a little carried away here in this excerpt from her 1916 classic, My Garden, many of you will know just how she feels. She writes:
        “When one comes to Daffodils, it is difficult to write with moderation or even to think connectedly – one wants to go into ecstasies and to run, in spirit, from one sunshiny group to another inhaling the ineffable wet-earth-and-sun perfume which is their birthright. . . .
        “It was Mahamet who said more than a thousand years ago, ‘He that hath two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them and buy Narcissus, for bread is food for the body but Narcissus is food for the soul.’ And verily it is true – food for the soul and delight for the eyes, these gleaming things lying like patches of light among the fallen Cherry Blossoms, glorifying the brown earth, and lifting the most sodden into a rarer atmosphere. Daffodil time is the very height of spring, the epitome of springing youth and hope.” (1995 catalog)

For articles on other topics, see our main Newsletter Archives page.