Celebrated in gardens for over 400 years, ‘Maximus’ or ‘Trumpet Major’ is an especially fine form of N. hispanicus with a wild, primeval look. Its trumpet is boldly scalloped and flared, it’s petals make a dramatic star, and it lifts up its face as if worshipping the sun. It’s been treasured by Elizabethan, Victorian, and Arts-and-Crafts gardeners alike – and now it’s your turn! 1 Y-Y, 14-16”, zones 5-8aS/10WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

This “enduring, sweet-scented” narcissus “deserves more respect and popularity,” says Thad Howard in his expert Bulbs for Warm Climates. Passed along for centuries, it’s often the first tazetta of the new year, with narrow, pointed petals that make its blossoms look like fistfuls of stars. 8 W-Y, 20”, zones 8-9S/10WC, from Alabama. Chart to compare.

Swans-Neck, Goose-Neck, Silver Bells — if you’re looking for that elusive Southern heirloom, we can’t promise that this form of N. moschatus is 100% identical, but probably even your granny couldn’t tell the difference. It’s short and sweet, with creamy white blooms that nod demurely, the epitome of spring. Aka N. cernuus, 13 W-W, 10-12”, zones 5-8aS/10WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Known for decades as THE pink daffodil, ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ is one of the landmark bulbs of the now-vanished 20th century. She’s more truly ivory and apricot, but so beautiful – a veritable sunrise for those who watch closely – that most modern pinks can’t hold a candle to her. For her enduring beauty, vigor, and place in history, we honored her as our Fall 2005 Heirloom Bulb of the Year. 2 W-P, 16-18”, zones 4-8aS/10WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

We’re thrilled to be able to offer this rare beauty again, for the first time since 1996. Named for the wife of one of Holland’s greatest bulb-growers, ‘Mrs. Ernst H. Krelage’ is a sturdy, buxom flower of creamy white and palest lemon. It’s been a favorite of ours for decades — and who knows when we’ll be able to offer it again! 1 W-W, 18-20”, zones 4-8aS/10WC, Holland. Although we hope to offer this rarity again in 2012, availability can’t be confirmed until June. Please check back then or subscribe to our email newsletter.

Named for Lily Langtry, the spirited actress whose affair with King-to-be Edward VII titillated Victorian England, this rare beauty has milk-white petals and a crinkled canary cup that matures to cream. Guy Wilson, famed breeder of new daffodils, wrote in 1929, “I hope we shall not lose altogether some of the older flowers of such undeniable beauty and grace as ‘Mrs. Langtry’.” 2 W-WWY, 18-20”, zones 5-7bS/9WC, from Holland’s greatest daffodil collector. Chart to compare.

This refined, up-town cousin of everybody’s favorite ‘Thalia’ sets the hearts of daffodil connoisseurs aflutter. It’s sublimely graceful, with smoother, thicker, more rounded petals of a white that expert Michael Jefferson-Brown calls “dazzling in its purity.” 5 W-W, 18-20”, zones 5-8aS/10WC, from Pennsylvania. Chart to compare.

This is not your usual pheasant’s-eye! It’s the earliest blooming of that season-ending clan, two weeks ahead of the traditional pheasant’s-eye, N. p. recurvus (below). And though it’s hardy to -15° F, it thrives in Southern heat that’s often death to its kin. With snowy white petals, a small yellow eye ringed with red-orange, and lavish fragrance. 9 W-YYR, 16-18”, zones 5-7bS/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

The poet’s narcissus grows wild in alpine meadows from Spain into the Balkans and is pictured in English herbals of the early 1600s. This form is the oldest available and, though it dates officially to 1831, it’s indistinguishable from those in colonial gardens. It’s famously fragrant and late-blooming, with sparkling white petals that arch back from a “green eye and crimson-fringed crown” (William Robinson). 13 W-YYR, 12-14”, zones 4-6bS/8WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Extra-early and extra-beautiful, this wildflowery trumpet daffodil is a bicolor N. pseudonarcissus (see Lent lily). Millions were once harvested for bouquets sold in London’s Covent Garden, and it’s great for naturalizing. Daffodil connoisseur Alec Gray wrote in 1955, “A drift of it is a thing of... lightness and grace.” 1 W-Y, 14-16”, zones 5-8aS/10WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.