Year after year, daffodils remind us of spring to come
The Dixon Gallery and Gardens is once again celebrating spring with flowers from bulbs planted last fall. This year, though, our focus is daffodils rather than tulips.
Although tulips are typically “one shot” annuals because of our climate, many gardeners enjoy planting them because of the rainbow-like variety of colors available. One reason for the new focus this year is that tulips are susceptible to several pests and, as all good farmers know, crop rotation is a great tool to prevent problems and reduce pesticide use. Daffodils are much better suited to the climate of our region, are long-lived, and are mostly pest-free.
Daffodils are perennials for us, meaning their blooms come back year after year. Their only down side is that for the best repeat flowering, the tall grasslike foliage on these plants must be allowed to linger for at least six weeks after the f lowers have faded in order to build up energy in the bulbs for next year’s show. Mowing them down prematurely or braiding them will result in smaller blooms the following year and, if continued for several consecutive years, will create bulbs without enough reserves to generate flowers at all.
Tulips provide a decidedly wider choice of colors. Daffodils are thought of as mostly yellow with a few oranges, but in fact they have a wider range of colors than one might realize. Some varieties have flower parts that are pink or red or green.
I often receive phone calls with questions regarding daffodils. Two questions have been brought up frequently over the past month. One is,“I have bulbs, which were purchased last year but were never planted; is it too late to plant?” I always tell folks that if the bulbs are not soft and crumbly to go ahead and plant them. They will come up later than typical and may not flower as well, but after they grow for a season in the ground, they will bloom on schedule.
The other question relates to early-blooming daffodils due to our warmer- than- usual weather conditions. People want to know if these early blooms will harm the plants. Daffs blooming in February is a common occurrence in the Mid-South, and varieties are available with varying bloom times. In fact, bulbs are represented in catalogs to bloom in either early, mid, or late season.
The early varieties typically bloom here in February. The first to bloom at the Dixon, though, typically in January, is the appro-
priately named ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation,’ which has a large yellow trumpet. The mid- and later-season varieties will continue to provide blooms into late March.
Bulbs are very resilient and have lots of energy stored, allowing them to survive hard times and ad- verse conditions. Think of all the old homesteads and road cuts on which daffodils have been blooming for many decades unattended. Unless the temperatures get really cold, the flowers and buds seem to be immune to our typical winter conditions in the Mid-South. Planting the bulbs in sunny areas helps to assure large blooms; they need at least a half- day of sun while the foliage is exposed to thrive.
In conjunction with our Festival of Blooms this year, we are hosting an American Daffodil Society-sanctioned f lower show on March 23 and 24 at the Dixon. Attending the show is a great way to learn about the diversity of these plants. The society recognizes 13 different divisions of daffodils, classified by color and size/ shape of the blooms. We will have representatives of all 13 divisions in flower and on display among the 100 varieties in our Memphis Garden Club Cutting Garden this month at the Dixon.
Daffodils are happy flowers that always make me smile. For more information on daffodils, an excellent source is the American Daffodil Society at daffodilusa.org.