The bright yellow blooms of daffodils are a wonderful sign that spring has arrived. Daffodils are the flower of March. Here’s how to plant, grow, and care for daffodils in your garden!
Daffodils are hardy and easy perennials to grow in most regions of North America, except Southern Florida. Daffodils are a fall-planted bulb, so plant them in autumn and they will bloom in late winter or early spring.
The traditional daffodil flower may be a showy yellow or white, with six petals and a trumpet-shape central corona, but many variations exists today. Leafless stems bear between 1 and 20 flowers; sometimes the flowers need to be staked so that they don’t weigh down the stems.
Daffodils are suitable for planting between shrubs or in a border, or for forcing blooms indoors. The Tete a Tete variety are best for borders. They also look wonderful in a woodland garden and in large groves. Many gardeners plant the bulbs not just by the dozens but by the hundreds! Daffodil flowers also make for great cut flowers.
The daffodil is the national flower of Wales and is traditionally worn on St David’s Day, which celebrates Wales’ patron saint, David on the 1st March every year. He lived in the sixth century and was known to have founded a large monastery in west Wales on the site of St David’s Cathedral.
There’s nothing quite like coming across the distinctive yellow blooms of a clump of wild daffodils on an early spring day. Whatever the reason, the daffodil remains a potent symbol of rebirth and new beginnings – their cheery blooms are a sign of nature’s optimism, heralding spring.