An early daffodil garden bed was a forgone conclusion after this past spring's daffodil season. I came to that decision after my entire garden turned out to be late. I really mean late daffodils this year, like really late, to include I had daffodils into May, a rarety for my zone 6b, almost zone 7 area.
The interesting part of this is that I have early daffodils, you know, some, but not a whole lot. But no early daffodils this year. Indeed, the blooming patterns of my bulbs looked like I only have late daffodils.
The lateness of my daffodils started when we moved into this home last fall and I had constructed quick beds for my bulbs and planted them without any experience on the property. I simply found a couple of areas that was easy to clear off the brush and weeds overgrowth. We dug the ground, added some organic matter and other stuff, and planted the bulbs. I didn't take into account the reverse slope in one bed and the shade in the other; the results, late daffodils even with my "early" bulbs.
Early Daffodil Beds To have early daffodils means more than just getting daffodils that bloom early. There's a couple of tricks to the trade. To me, early daffodil beds are the ones that I plant in full sun and hopefully, they will not be shaded any part of the day. (This picture was taken at 6:30 in the late afternoon, and shows a little shadow of a tree that is located about 100 feet away. The bed itself is 16 feet wide by 50 feet long.) With full sun, the bulbs usually come up early, and being blessed by the warmth of the sun, bloom early. The other side of the coin is that some daffodils, let's call them early early, will bloom too early to be useful in shows, but does add color to the garden. That's fine for the garden, but if I pay big money for a bulb, I want to use it in a show, and early early is no good for me, usually. That's why the mid-season beds are important.
Mid-Season Beds Therefore, some early early bulbs are planted in the mid-season bed, hoping they will bloom later or with the "early" bulbs. The major difference in my planting scheme for the mid-season bed, from the early bed, is that I usually plant the mid-season beds under speckled shade, or with some shade of deciduous trees. (The bed in this picture is 16 feet wide and 50 feet long, and has some shade on it most any time of the day.) By the time the leaves comes out, the daffodils have bloomed, and by the time the sun becomes directly on the daffodils, it's summer and the daffodils are dormant. The daffodils need about 6 hours of sunshine a day, but over the last years, I've learned that speckled sunshine for most of the day will allow them to florish, and multiply.
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