Daffodils for heat
All daffodils enjoy sub-zero winters, but which ones can also handle a hot, dry summer? JACKIE FRENCH shares her pick of the toughest daffs
When I moved to a climate that went down to −9°C most winters, I assumed that finally, after years in Queensland, I could grow masses of easy-care daffodils. Chilling the bulbs each winter? No worries.
I bought a ‘mixed variety’ bulk lot of
100 bulbs as soon as I had garden space to plant them. They bloomed gloriously and eventually died down… and that was the last I saw of about 90 of them. No-one had told me that while daffodils need winter chilling, they also don’t like hot summers, and our summers can be like the back blocks of Venus.
That was about 40 years ago. Some of the 10 or so bulbs that survived the first summer here multiplied, and kept on multiplying. Others thrived for a while then died in extraordinary droughts like the last one. I have slowly learnt which daffodils will survive heat and drought, year after year, with no care beyond letting the leaves die down naturally.
Which ones? Sadly, all my pink, red and green-rimmed daffs never made it to the second year. All the survivors are yellow trumpet varieties, or white ones, or white and yellow, or yellow and orange, as well as paperwhite and ‘Erlicheer’ jonquils. To my surprise, a gift of double yellow daffodils has also thrived, their heads so heavy the stems break in wet years, but proudly glorious in spring in the drought.
You have two choices if you’re looking for heat-hardy daffs: buy a cheap mixed lot and let the survivors breed, or find a specialist nursery online (or locally, if you’re lucky) – one that knows not just the name of each variety they sell, but what climate it likes and, preferably, where it comes from. Don’t buy any daffs unless the nursery makes a point of saying, “These are the best for heat and dry.”
Why? Some daffodils (Narcissus spp.) come from areas with hot, dry summers and bloom happily on sunny, rocky hills. Yellow N. gaditanus, for example, grows wild in southern Spain and Portugal on limestone hills. Pure white N. panizzianus grows on hillsides from Portugal through Greece, Algeria and Morocco. And other daffodils have been bred to be heat- and drought-hardy, including N. ‘Spellbinder’, a yellow daff with an extra-long trumpet, and extra-long blooming time, too. An extra early-blooming yellow daffodil is
N. ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’, which flowers around June here and lasts into July or even later. I’m also pretty sure that one of the early, stubborn survivors of my first bulk daffodil purchase was the popular, old-fashioned ‘King Alfred’, with its bright gold blooms.
It may seem extravagant to buy daffs by name instead of in packets, but specialist nurseries are also the place to buy them in bulk. If you don’t want 50 or even 100, share with a friend. But, most importantly, buying the right daffodils for your climate saves you money in the not-so long run. A happy daff will multiply, so one bulb will become at least two, two will become four, and four, eight. Within a decade, a few of the absolutely right bulbs will give you that most glorious carpet of winter and spring – “a host of golden daffodils”.
MAIN, AND BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT
Narcissus ‘Soleil d’Or’, seen here with ‘Erlicheer’ jonquils, is another tough da that’s survived baking summers, long droughts, heavy frost and neglect in Jackie’s garden; N. ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’; paperwhites (N. papyraceus); the extra-long blooming N. ‘Spellbinder’.