Monday, April 27, 2009

Daffodils - Division 13, Species, and Wild Hybrids

I guess this is where everything else came from. You don't see many species daffodils offered for sale, the bigger fancier ones being more popular, but these are just lovely. The first is Daffodil x odorus 'Flore Pleno', or Queen Anne's Double Jonquil. These are a smaller flower and bloom later in the daffodil season. Sometimew this one only has the cup doubled as in the picture, and sometimes it looks more like a rose. Very fragrant.

This one is Daffodil nanus lobularis. This one is a bit shorter. This one naturalizes well. It is about 5" tall.



This one is Daffodil albus 'Plenus Odoratus'. It is usually double, but there always seem to be some blooms that come out single. This one is better in cooler climates. It is also very fragrant as most of the species ones seem to be. One wonders if they bred out the lovely scent with all of the hybridizing for 'better' flowers.


This last one is Daffodil willkommii. It is a really tiny thing, the stem being only about 4 or 5 inches tall, but so perfectly proportioned that if I didn't tell you that, you could think it was full sized and not one with flowers that are smaller than a dime. The foliage is a bit different, more like a juncus than like most daffodils. This one sometimes has 2 flowers per stem. We grow ours in a rock garden which is the perfect place for so tiny a plant.

Sunny and hot - again. This is the end of the daffodils. There is another category where they put everything that didn't fit into one of the previous ones, but since that isn't really descriptive, I think I'll just move on. Tomorrow I'll have a sort of a guessing game that I'm working on right now. Maybe even a prize to go along with it.
Jane



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