Jetfire is one of everyone’s top cottage garden daffodils
Yellow and orange cottage garden daffodils
are brightening up the garden here and are a great success this year. I learned some lessons last year about which daffodils look better in a cottage style garden and thought I’d pass them on.
Bright short early daffodils perfect for a pot
I now only plant early daffodils –
ones that flower right now in February and early March when there’s not much else to give colour and the garden needs cheering up.
I used to buy the April late flowering ones which are tall, gorgeous and very scented BUT not any more.
Tall and gorgeous, I think this is Falconet.
Firstly they were so tall they often fell flat in bad weather and never stood up again. Secondly they flowered when loads of other things were shooting up and they got lost in the profusion of May.
For me yellow looks better in Feb/March and I don’t need it when the red and purple tulips come in late April/May.
Lastly the leaves of the later varieties are huge big strapping things that stand strong and tall taking months to die down. In a pot that’s a bit of a pain – not much to look at and taking up all the room.
I think this is late flowering “Geranium”, tall and very scented.
So the joy of the early flowering cottage garden daffodils is that they are short and weatherproof. Their leaves are thin and delicate and will have died down by May when I can lift them away leaving the bulb in the pot for next year.
This looks like Jetfire, orange and yellow.
My all time favourite cottage garden daffodils
This year I’ve got Tete a Tete, February Gold, Jetfire, and Topolino. All their bulbs were cherry tomato sized, I could push them into pots and borders with my finger without having to dig any hole at all.
A great catalogue is Walkers Bulbs at bulbs.co.uk with pictures and descriptions to make choosing simple.
Finally here is a container at the very front of the garden for passers by to enjoy crammed with 50 Jetfire reminding us that a good dollop of cheap and cheerful bulbs gives a lot of value rather than a handful of rare and expensive ones. A choice of course but I’m very pleased with this splash of cheerfulness.
Last year I wrote lessons to be learned but I’m not sure I actually took any notice of my own advice here
Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are enjoying your own daffodils right now.
