The daffodils are blooming and spring is here.
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| Narcissus 'Sound' and 'King Alfred' |
I'm glad I planted lots of them last fall. They are still a bit sparse, since it's their first year, but hopefully they will naturalize and thicken up in the years to come.
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| Narcissus 'Ice Follies', faded color |
It would be hard to pick a favorite, but I'm definitely partial to these 'Ice Follies'. I should be embarrassed about liking something so girly, but there you go. Above is the color once the huge frilly cup has mostly faded to cream. It starts out a strong primrose color:
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| Narcissus 'Ice Follies', newly opened, with puschkinia libanotica |
This then quickly fades to a lovely soft shade:
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| Narcissus 'Ice Follies' with boxwood |
These little 'Ceylon's are a nice medium yellow with what is supposed to be a small orange cup. Mine are more of a deep yellow so far, but still a very elegant daffodil. Here they are planted among the ferny foliage of
Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's Ladder).
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| Narcissus 'Ceylon' |
I also like 'Barrett Browning'. They are white with a small cup and an orange-y rim around the center, and have a clean, perky sort of vibe.
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| Narcissus 'Barrett Browning' |
(You'll have to excuse the horrendously ugly chicken wire spoiling the picture. I have resorted to drastic measures in an attempt to keep out rabbits.) Here's a long view of my back hedge planting, with 'Barrett Browning' in the middle, tulip 'Sweetheart' in front and tulip 'Juan' behind. The copper foliage is Ninebark 'Coppertina' just beginning to leaf out.
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| Tulip 'Sweetheart', Daffodil 'Barrett Browning', Tulip 'Juan' |
I also planted some 'Katie Heath', a small triandrus type of daffodil with reflexed petals. It's very tiny and sweet, although perhaps not so impactful as the larger daffs. You can see it's hardly taller than a hyacinth. The color of the cup is an indefinable pinky-rosy-peach.
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| Narcissus 'Katie Heath', with hyacinth 'Woodstock' and emerging peony foliage |
Here is my new patio bed, planted just last year, with some 'Katie Heath' sprinkled about. The tulips ('Purple Prince', 'Monte Carlo', and 'Sweetheart') are doing most of the work, but I think little Katie adds a nice touch.
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| Patio Bed in early May. Tulips 'Purple Prince', 'Monte Carlo', 'Sweetheart', Narcissus 'Katie Heath'. |
The tree, just beginning to open its flowers, is an amelanchier.
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteyour May garden is lovely!
Nice narcissus especially I liked 'Ice Follies'. I have no this variety and know want to purchase!
Have a nice gardening!
Oh I am sure there are girlier daffs than 'Ice Follies' - there are all those doubles which look like exotic ball gowns and big hats! I like 'Ice Follies' too, so they can't be THAT girly. The Amelanchier looks like it's going to give a knock-out display. What a lovely spring post!
ReplyDeleteHi! You have a lot of nice daffodil varieties... they fill out soon enough I can assure you. I suspect many of mine are to the point of needing division. I've been digging them up in green foliage and replanting them immediately... it's been working very well thus far. I also tried planting them in washtubs of soil one year and that worked well also One bulb touching the next) and then planted out in the fall, although perhaps a bit less bloomed the following year. Last year I gave my brother-in law several thousand bulbs... we took the tines on a backhoe to make 8" trenches in a sod area behind their pond... laid the bulbs in rows and pushed soil over them... They never got watered once and 75% of them bloomed this year... amazing!
ReplyDeleteTake care< Larry
First time on your blog and love your spring garden. Daffodil ' Ice Follies' is also one of my favourites.
ReplyDeleteHappy gardening!
Janneke
Some beautiful daffodil varieties in your garden. They have all finished blooming here in mine, but they were particularly lovely this year.
ReplyDelete