Daffodil Bulbs are in Stores Now!

This is the time of year when daffodil and other bulbs appear in local garden stores, home improvement stores, and the big chain stores. Even if you don’t plant bulbs until later, now is the time to buy your bulbs. Even if you’ve ordered from catalogs, you may find something locally that catches your fancy. Buy now, while the selection is best; plant later when the soil cools off. When making your selections, choose only firm, solid bulbs.

By proper selection of varieties, you can extend the blooming time for daffodils in your garden. For earliest bloom, select the miniature ‘Tete-a-Tete’ (pictured). While small but not miniature in size, ‘Jetfire’ in yellow and orange and ‘February Gold’ in all yellow are some of the earliest to bloom. White and yellow ‘Jack Snipe’ blooms about the same time.

Why not try something a little different this year. Most gardens have yellow daffodils. Why not try some bulbs of ‘Intrigue’, a luminous lemon colored daffodil with several blooms on a stem and a cup that turns white as the flower ages? Or how about delicately colored ‘Bell Song’, another with several blooms per stem. It has white petals with a buffy-pink cup that sports a deeper pink rim on maturity. ‘Pipit’ is another with similar coloring to ‘Intrigue’, but has a taller stem. Last year, I found ‘Daydream’ locally, which is an excellent lemon colored daffodil sure to please.

For late blooming daffodils also imbued with lots of scent, try ‘Geranium’ or ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (pictured). Both of these have three or four small blooms per stem—single in ‘Geranium’, double in ‘Sir Winston Churchill’. They’ll perfume the garden as you walk by.

Some other late-blooming miniatures you can get locally include ‘April Tears’, and ‘Hawera’. While these can be planted in pots, they can also be planted in the garden to bloom next spring. They would prefer a site which is on the dry side in the summer. To my eye, they are much more charming than ‘Golden Bells’ which local stores have begun stocking. This also blooms late in daffodil season. The promoters say you’ll get several bloom stems from each bulb, which is unusual in this type of daffodil. Five or six bulbs will make a nice pot when in full bloom. Gardening in Zone 5-6, I find they do better for me if I plant in a pot and keep the pot protected over the winter. The foliage comes up early, and can be killed by winter temperatures when planted in the open ground here. Perhaps the latest to bloom of all is ‘Baby Moon’ which bears several sweetly-scented florets on each stem. It is well worth growing.

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