"Narcissus triandrus alba, called angel’s tears, also lays its ears back… where it looks like a little ghost, weeping.” - Vita Sackville-West
“The news did not trouble her particularly; all news was bad, like wage demands, strikes, or war, and the wise person paid no attention to it. What was important was that it was a bright, sunny day; her first narcissi were in bloom, and the daffodils behind them were already showing flower buds.”—Nevil Shute
On Tuesday, March 9, 1999, in Devon, England, ninety-six year old Ada Gigg unveiled a commemorative plaque that read: “On March 14th 1899 the King Alfred daffodil, which was bred on these premises by Walter Hill, nurseryman to Percy Kendall, received a First Class Certification from the Royal Horticultural Society.” She was honored because as a teenager she worked as a flower packer of the big yellow daffodils, which were wrapped by her in blue tissue paper (three dozen to a box), loaded onto a horse-drawn wagon which then took them to the railroad station and onto a London-bound train.
Daffodil is the common name of the genus Narcissus of which there are up to 200 species and over 32,000 registered cultivars. The King Alfred daffodil is the quintessential daffodil with a big, yellow trumpet, but there are so many types of daffodils that they are categorized into thirteen divisions, according to flower shape and place of origin. King Alfred is from Division 1, the Trumpet daffodils. Narcissus species are native to areas around the Mediterranean Sea, from North Africa, through south Europe into Russia and have been cultivated for centuries.
The narcissus bloom consists of a ring of petals, the perianth, and a central cup, the corona. In Division 4, the doubles, the cup is comprised of a cluster of overlapping segments. Many old New England farm houses have a double, yellow narcissus naturalized in the yards. These are Nasrcissus telamonius plenus or butter and eggs daffodil brought over from Europe by the colonists and passed from garden to garden.
Divisions 5 through 10 consist of plants with more discrete, but more endearing, blooms. The Triandrus group are native to Spain, Portugal, and France and have multiple flowers per stem with reflexed petals of pale yellow or white. The pendant flowers have given them the sobriquet of ‘angel’s tears’. My favorite, ‘Thalia’, a pure white. Vita Sackville-West, the poet of the garden wrote, “Narcissus triandrus alba, called angel’s tears, also lays its ears back… where it looks like a little ghost, weeping.”
“You know how mules throw their ears back when something frightens or baffles them…well, the petals of the cyclamineus daffodils flare back like mule’s ears.”— Henry Mitchell
The Cyclamineus division is a group of miniature daffodils with swept back petals, ‘Jetfire’ has a bright yellow perianth with a golden orange corona. ‘Tête-à-tête’, with its dainty yellow blooms, is often found for sale in pots in supermarkets late in the winter. Bring it home for early cheer and plant out in the garden for years of color.
Many people, especially from the south, call daffodils ‘jonquils.’ They are daffodils but not all daffodils are jonquils. Division 7 is Jonquilla, a group that can tolerate the heat of southern gardens and has narrower, rounded foliage and fragrant blooms. Smyrna, Georgia has crowned itself ‘Jonquil City’. A burlap sack full of jonquil bulbs was sent to the Samuel Taylor family in 1883, the bulbs were shared with neighbors and prospered, and now they have brought fame.
The Tazetta narcissus, Division 8, are native to northern Africa, Southern Europe, into Western Asia and Russia. They are a musky bunch with scents that can overwhelm. There are some hardy here, including ‘Falconet’ and ‘Cragford’, but many varieties are more tender and are used for forcing in winter. The paper whites, N.tazetta papyraceus, are popular in winter, although many find their scent too strong. Another tazetta often forced in winter is the Chinese Sacred Lily, N.tazetta var. chinensis which has a long history. There are no narcissus native to China, but these bulbs were brought in among traders from the Mediterranean area centuries ago and adopted by the Chinese for the celebration of the New Year. When Chinese laborers came to the western United States they brought the bulbs with them. Many tazetta narcissus have become naturalized in warmer areas of our country and around the world.
The narcissus of Division 9 are the Poeticus, late spring flowering, with fragrant blooms of a creamy white perianth and small orange corona rimmed in red. The poet’s daffodil, often called pheasant’s eye, has been cherished in gardens for centuries. Celia Thaxter grew “the exquisite, mystic poet’s narcissus” in Maine. Vita Sackville-West nurtured the”orange-eyed narcissus of the poets” in England. It is native from Spain into Eastern Europe. ‘Narcissus Valley’ is a protected natural wonder near the town of Khust, Ukraine where millions of N.poeticus bloom each May. Scientists believe that during the Ice Age a mud slide brought the bulbs into the valley where they have flourished. We can hope that by May Ukraine will be free of Putin’s murderous minions and can appreciate their botanic wonder.
Our narcissus begin to bloom soon. Don’t forget to plant more this fall. As Henry Mitchell, the Earthman of the Washington Post wrote, “the point of all this is to encourage all gardeners who have not yet gone berserk for daffodils to make a beginning this fall.”
“Life’s a dog and then you die? No, no. Life is a joyous dance through daffodils beneath cerulean blue skies and then, then what? I forget what happens next.—Edward Abbey
“I’m as gay as a daffodil, my dear.”—Freddy Mercury
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