The Horticulture Path

Fall is in the air and it is time for planting many seeds, plants, trees and bulbs! NGC, Inc.�s president, Renee Blaschke, stated an initiative that encourages us as clubs and individual gardeners to create carpets of spring color next year by planting daffodils. Color can be stretched over many weeks by choosing early, mid-season and late blooming varieties.

�Daffodil� and �yellow� are almost synonymous in most peoples� minds. Colors range, however, from purest white of the multiflowered Christmas-January blooming �Paper Whites� through ivory, yellow, yellow and white, white with orange cups, white with pink coronas, white with an almost red eye-ring (�Poet�s Daffodil or �Pheasant Eye�) to the deepest golden yellow with orange touches in the double flowered daffodils. Some varieties are even pale green! With our South Carolina growing zones ranging from the mountains to the ocean, blooming can be from December through May.

With the emphasis on planting daffodils, you may have blooms to enter in spring flower shows. Hold on to those labels that came on your packet of bulbs. If you are planting a large number in close proximity consider drawing a sketch of your bed and recording the variety names in each patch. Outline the planted areas with golf tees to prevent accidentally slicing into dormant bulbs. (not a recommended method of divide to multiply!) Bulbs grow best in moderately fertile, well-drained soil that is moist during the growing season. If using organic fertilizers such as bone-meal or blood-meal be aware that four-legged critters may think you�ve buried dinner! I try to work a new bulb bed well in advance of actual planting, making certain nutrients are at least 5 inches down in the soil in the bulb�s root zone and covered with garden soil. Mulch well to suppress fall weeds. At planting time, open a hole and pop the bulb down without disturbing the nutrient layer. (I learned this the hard way---I did all in one session with nutrients mixed throughout, put the bed to rest under mulch and went away for Thanksgiving. When I returned home I found the bed had been totally torn apart by a large dog or raccoon, the bulbs scattered so much I had no idea which was which!)

The botanical name for daffodils is Narcissus. This is the Genus. The genus is separated into 12 divisions. Division 10 is the wild species and their wild hybrids. These botanical names will be, for example, Narcissus bulbocodium. For almost all daffodils commonly cultivated identification can be done with genus and cultivar name (should be on the package or in the book you ordered from) :i.e. Narcissus �Actaea�, Narcissus �April Love�, or Narcissus �Ice Follies�, etc. In shows with an entire section for daffodils they should be separated according to the 12 divisions.

In case you are having a large spring show and anticipate lots of daffodils, the twelve divisions and their characteristics, which are based mainly on flower forms, can be found in the American Horticulture Society�s A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants.

Also go on line to the American Daffodil Society, look under their Daffodil info titled Divisions and cultivars for gorgeous pictures and descriptions of the 12 different flower forms.

See you along the garden path! Jerry

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