Spring the season is here, officially until Summer begins in late June. So please do get out there and experience it. In your own backyard, neighborhood, park, botanical garden, forest or tradesmen plant nursery.
Most Spring bulbs are up or emerging and the weather determines how long or little they will be putting on the show. A Rainy Day Viewing can be rewarding if you get out there before things flop to the ground. Which is one reason you want to plan a bulb garden that has material with varying heights, such as grape hyacinth mixed in with daffodils and/or tulips. The hyacinth will stand with the wettest weather, but the daffodils maybe not. On a dry day a walk thru the bulbs will reward you with fragrance, if you have selected bulbs that will provide you with such. And, finally, a choice of early, mid and late season bloomers will provide a display for a number of weeks. So now is the time to go out and about and reap the rewards of careful planning in hopes of generating your personal horticulture masterpiece for Spring.
Nantucket holds a great celebration each spring in April - Three Million Daffodil Celebration
They are just wild about daffodils! April 23-25 will be all things daffodils if you can manage to get there. There will be however more time to see daffodils after the event, but the true experience should be planned during the festival when everyone and everything is adorned with daffodils.
The American Daffodil Society offers a plethra of information on daffodils. Each year they select a National Gold Winner and the US Postal Service even has a daffodil themed stamp you can purchase.
Did you know that deer and rodents will not eat your daffodils? The bulbs and leaves contain a poisonous substance that they are not interested in consuming. Tulips however are like a fine dining experience for them, so you can try surrounding your tulips with a ring of daffodils, sometimes this works, but not always.
Did you know you can plant daffodils in a shady area? If the shade is created from deciduous trees (meaning they lose their leaves in autumn) your daffodils will be a welcome display in the Spring until the trees wake up and start their own show.
Do you know the difference between a daffodil and a jonquil? If you are interested in entering daffodils in competition, it would be important to know this difference.
How about the difference between daffodil and narcissus? Careful, could be a trick question. If you know botanical latin it will help with the answer.
It is now that I go out into the garden and determine where I need to put more bulbs for next year's display. I usually will take color coded wooden craft sticks and place them where I need to add that color to an area. Later during the Fall I acquire my bulbs and plant them where I've left a marker to do so. Easy! I don't have to worry that I'm digging an area already planted or that I'm just adding more of the same color to an area.
As a bonus I use the colored stick (it's flat like a tongue depressor) and write the name of the bulb I've just planted there. The following Spring I enjoy my walk thru the garden learning about the new bulbs that are up and asking us all to please come up close and see and touch and smell! Remember to bring some indoors to enjoy as well!
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